Crown Heights
And Beyond
Is the tension between blacks and
Jews in Brooklyn the harbinger
of a national crisis?
JAMES BESSER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
THE DE TROI T JEWISH NEWS
C
24
rown Heights: the very
words have taken on an ominous tone
for Jews around the country in the wake
of the 1991 spasm of anti-Semitic vio-
lence that even some moderate Jewish
leaders now regard as the first genuine
pogrom on American soil.
In some ways, the continuing drama
in Brooklyn is a distinctly local phe-
nomenon, pitting some 25,000 Chasidic
Jews against about 100,000 blacks in
a city infamous for its urban incivility.
But the tensions in Crown Heights
also threaten black-Jewish relations
elsewhere, calling attention to an inse-
curity among Jews that may be grow-
ing as ethnic politics in America's cities
take on a nastier edge.
"Crown Heights is the fruition of Jews'
worst fears — murder, death and a sense
that one cannot depend on the powers-
that-be to maintain law and order," said
Abraham Foxman, executive director of
the Anti-Defamation League. "The fear
that the police are not able to prevent
the violence is very traumatic for the
Jewish community."
Summer Violence
The bare facts in the Crown Heights
affair are well established.
In August, 1991, Gavin Cato, a 7-year
old black child, died after he was struck
by a car driven by an official of the cen-
tral organization of the Lubavitch Cha-
sidim.
That tragic event sparked three
nights of black rioting that featured
overt anti-Semitism, most tragically the
stabbing death of a 29-year-old rab-
binical student from Australia, Yankel
Rosenbaum, by a gang of blacks who
chanted "get the Jew."
In retrospect, almost everybody agrees
that New York authorities, under the
the city's first black mayor, David Dink-
ins, were slow to protect the embattled
Jewish community.
The tensions were rekindled two
months ago when Lemrick Nelson Jr.,
Mr. Rosenbaum's accused assailant, was
acquitted by a mostly black and Lati-
no jury. After the decision, Mr. Nelson
celebrated his victory with the jurors
who decided his fate, a slap in the face
of the anguished Jewish community.
A few weeks ago, the crisis escalat-
ed another few notches when a home-
less black man — a burglar, according to
Chasidic spokesmen — was allegedly
beaten by a group of Chasidic men, an
action that was characterized as a bias-
related crime by the police and Mayor
Dinkins, who has become the focus of
anger in the Chasidic community.
New York's first black mayor, Mr.
Dinkins received much support from the
Jewish community when he was elect-
ed in 1989 by a narrow margin. Long
considered an outspoken friend
of Israel and sympathetic to
Jewish causes, Mr. Dinkins
has expressed hurt feelings
over the fact that many Jews
now feel that he was responsi-
ble for the Crown Heights ri-
ots lasting four days and for
allegedly having a double stan-
dard by favoring other mi-
norities over Jews.
The mayor confronted some
of his critics in a private meet-
ing with Lubavitch and other
Orthodox leaders in Crown
Heights as part of an effort to
ease tensions. 'The anger was
getting out of control," said
Rabbi Shea Hecht, Lubavitch
spokesman,
Adding to the problem is the
fact that 1993 is an election year and
critics and supporters of Mr. Dinkins
are already citing Crown Heights as a
key issue regarding the mayor's chances
for re-election.
Election Year
Jewish critics are saying that the
mayor has cast his political hopes on the
black population. But if Jews mobilize
in force against the mayor in the up-
coming election, the results could include
a strong backlash from a black commu-
nity for whom Mr. Dinkins has become
a powerful symbol of political empow-
erment.
Benjamin Hooks, the longtime exec-
utive director of the NAACP, passion-
ately defends Mayor Dinkins against
charges that his actions were motivated
by anti-Semitism, or by a political pref-
erence for the black community. Like
many African-American leaders, he
warns that a concerted Jewish campaign
against the embattled mayor could turn
what is essentially a local dispute into
a new crisis for the black and Jewish
communities on a national level.
"Right now, I don't view this as a na-
tional issue," he said. "But it could be-
come one. A reaction against Dinkins
could trigger this kind of national im-
pact."
A black-Jewish confrontation over the
upcoming mayoralty contest, he said,
could exacerbate the problem of black
anti-Semitism. "For Dinkins to be sin-