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AJCommittee Addresses
Crown Heights' Lessons

NOAM M.M. NEUSNER

Staff Writer

I

n an open board meeting
last week, the American
Jewish Committee ad-
dressed some of the hard-
won lessons of Crown
Heights. No blacks,
however, attended the
meeting, which addressed
black-Jewish relations.
"This was meant as an in-
sider, Jewish community
opportunity to examine
some of the issues," said
Sharona Shapiro, the AJC's
local director.
Three speakers addressed
the Crown Heights riots of
this past summer, where a
Lubavitch student, Yankel
Rosenbaum, was stabbed to
death by a mob of blacks.
The murder was in retalia-
tion for an accidental traffic
death of a 7-year-old black
boy.
Rabbi Herschel Finman, a
local Lubavitch represent-
ative and a friend of Mr.
Rosenbaum, said the
Brooklyn community had
once been exclusively "lily
white" and has since become
a racially divided neighbor-
hood.
The Lubavitch, who have
made Crown Heights their
world center, he said,
"haven't left and they're not
going to leave."
Rabbi Finman criticized
the organi7ed Jewish com-
munity for what he perceiv-
ed as their silence on the

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Rosenbaum murder.
"Why didn't anyone open
their mouths?"
In contrast to Rabbi Fin-
man's often emotional
speech, Murray Friedman,
AJC's Middle Atlantic re-
gional director, described
the history of the black-
Jewish relationship.
"The task really is one of
normalizing a relationship
that has gone out of hand,"
he said. Crown Heights rep-
resented a "turning point"
that rendered blacks and
Jews irreconcilably divided.
"The task today is to deal
with the pieces."
The absence of blacks at
the meeting struck one of
the speakers as "very odd."
Black views about Jews
were discussed, even though
the speakers were Jewish.
The meeting's theme —
" C a n Crown Heights
Happen Here?" — elicited
one responge from
Southfield school board
' pres-
ideat Steven Kaplan, that
"blacks prefer the diversity
that exists in Southfield."
Mr_ Kaplan added that
blacks he knows do not want
to live in a city with a
majority black population.
Moreover, Mr. Friedman
said black interest in de-
veloping "lines of com-
munication" with Jews is
often a luxury.
"They have bigger fish to
fry," he said, in reference to
the problems of urban pov-
erty, drugs and crime. ❑

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Anniversary Program
Set On Spanish Jews

A program commemorating
the 500th anniversary of Col-
umbus' first voyage to the
New World in 1492 will be of-
fered by Temple Emanu-El
and the Midrasha-College of
Jewish Studies 7-8:30 p.m.
Mondays Nov. 4-25 at the
temple.
The program, "500 Years
After 1492: A Quincentenary
Jewish Experience," will have
three speakers. Dr. Ivan Starr,
associate professor, depart-
ment of Near Eastern
Studies, Wayne State Univer-
sity will present "Spanish
Jewry through History." Dr.
Starr also will speak Nov. 11
on "Spanish Jewry Today."
the Nov. 18 session will be led
by Rabbi Joseph Gutmann,
adjunct curator of the Detroit
Institute of Arts; his topic,
"Spanish Jewry as Seen
through its Architecture and

Art:' The last session, Nov.
25, will be led by Shirley
Behar, president of the
Sephardic Community of
Greater Detroit, on "Sephar-
dic Customs Today."
There is a charge. For
registration information, call
the Midrasha, 352-7117; or
Temple Emanu-El, 967-4020.

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Book Fair
Seeks Authors

The 40th Annual Jewish
Book Fair will hold its first
annual reception for local
authors who have written
books of Jewish content cur-
rently in print Nov. 16
preceding Yiddish English
Theatre Night.
Participating authors will
have an opportunity to sell
and autograph their books.
Call 661-1000, ext. 293.

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