The Crown Heights riot was a
race riot
This is a list of ethnic riots by country, and includes riots based on ethnic, sectarian, xenophobic, and racial conflict. Some of these riots can also be classified as pogroms.
Africa
Americas
United States
Nativist period: 1700s ...
that took place from August 19 to August 21, 1991, in the
Crown Heights section of
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Black residents attacked
orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...
residents, damaged their homes, and looted businesses. The riots began on August 19, 1991, after two children of
Guyanese immigrants were accidentally struck by a car running a red light
while following the motorcade of
Rebbe
A Rebbe ( yi, רבי, translit=rebe) or Admor ( he, אדמו״ר) is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spiritua ...
Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson (Modern Hebrew: מנחם מענדל שניאורסון; old-fashioned spelling: מנחם מענדל שניאורסאהן; April 5, 1902 OS – June 12, 1994; AM 11 Nissan 5662 – 3 Tammuz 5754), known to man ...
, the leader of
Chabad
Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic group ...
, a Jewish religious movement. One child died and the second was severely injured.
In the immediate aftermath of the fatal accident, Black youths attacked several Jews on the street, seriously injuring several and fatally injuring an Orthodox Jewish student from Australia. Over the next three days, the rioters looted stores and attacked Jewish homes. Two weeks after the riot, a non-Jewish man was killed by a group of Black men; some believed that the victim had been mistaken for a Jew. The riots were a major issue in the
1993 mayoral race, contributing to the defeat of Mayor
David Dinkins, an African American. Opponents of Dinkins said that he failed to contain the riots, with many calling the riot a "
pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
" to emphasize what they said was the role of the New York City government in the riots.
Ultimately, Black and Jewish leaders developed an outreach program between their communities to help calm and possibly improve racial relations in Crown Heights over the next decade.
Causes
Car crash
At approximately 8:20 pm on Monday, August 19, 1991, Yosef Lifsh, 22, was driving a
station wagon
A station wagon ( US, also wagon) or estate car ( UK, also estate), is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door ( ...
with three passengers west on President Street, part of the three-car motorcade of
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, leader of the
Chabad Lubavitch
Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic groups ...
Hasidic
Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...
movement.
The procession was led by an unmarked
police car
A police car (also called a police cruiser, police interceptor, patrol car, area car, cop car, prowl car, squad car, radio car, or radio motor patrol) is a ground vehicle used by police and law enforcement for transportation during patrols a ...
with two officers, with its rooftop light flashing.
[
The police car and Schneerson's automobile crossed Utica Avenue on a green light and proceeded along President Street at a normal speed, but Lifsh's vehicle had fallen behind. Not wishing to lose sight of Schneerson's car, Lifsh crossed Utica Avenue on a red light. There was no indication of the exact speed of his vehicle.] Lifsh's vehicle struck a car being driven on Utica Avenue, veered onto the sidewalk, knocked a 600-pound (275 kg) stone building pillar down and pinned two children against an iron grate covering the window of a first-floor apartment in a four-story brick building (). Seven-year-old Gavin Cato, the son of Guyanese immigrants, who was working on his bicycle chain while on the sidewalk near his apartment on President Street, died instantly. His seven-year-old cousin Angela Cato, who was playing nearby, survived but was severely injured.
Lifsh believed he had the right of way to proceed through the intersection because of the police escort.[ Lifsh said he deliberately steered his car away from adults on the sidewalk, toward the wall, a distance of about , in order to stop the car. Lifsh later said that the car did not come to a full stop when it hit the building, but slid to the left along the wall and hit the children.
]
Death of Gavin Cato
Accounts differ as to the next sequence of events. After the collision, Lifsh said that the first thing he did was to try to lift the car in order to free the two children beneath it. Members of the EMS unit, who arrived on the scene about three minutes after the accident, said that Lifsh was being beaten and pulled out of the station wagon by three or four men.[ A volunteer ambulance from the ]Hatzolah
Hatzalah (; he, הַצָּלָה, lit=rescue, relief) is one of several Jewish volunteer emergency medical service (EMS) organizations serving mostly areas with Jewish communities around the world, giving free medical service no matter their ...
ambulance corps arrived on the scene at about 8:23 pm, followed by police and a City ambulance. The latter took Gavin Cato to Kings County Hospital
Kings County Hospital Center is a municipal hospital located in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It is owned and operated by NYC Health + Hospitals, a municipal agency that runs New York City's public hospitals. It has ...
, arriving at 8:32 pm; Cato was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.[ Volunteers from a second Hatzolah ambulance helped Angela Cato, until a second City ambulance arrived and took her to the same hospital.][
Two attending police officers, as well as a technician from the City ambulance, directed the Hatzolah driver to remove Lifsh from the scene for his safety, while Gavin Cato was being removed from beneath the station wagon. According to ''The New York Times'', more than 250 neighborhood residents, mostly black teenagers, many of whom were shouting "Jews! Jews! Jews!", jeered the driver of the car and turned their anger on the police.
Some members of the community were outraged because Lifsh was taken from the scene by a private ambulance service while city emergency workers were still trying to free the children who were pinned under the car. Some believed that Gavin Cato died because the Hatzolah ambulance crew was unwilling to help non-Jews. There was a rumor at the time that Lifsh was intoxicated. A breath alcohol test administered by police within 70 minutes of the accident indicated this was not the case. Other rumors circulating shortly after the accident included: Lifsh was on a cell phone, Lifsh did not have a valid driver's license, and that police prevented people, including Gavin Cato's father, from assisting in the rescue of the children.]
Later that evening, as the crowds and rumors grew, people threw bottles and rocks. Someone reportedly shouted, "Let's go to Kingston Avenue and get a Jew!" A number of black youths set off westward toward Kingston Avenue ( away from Utica Avenue), a street of predominantly Jewish residents several blocks away, vandalizing cars, and throwing rocks and bottles as they went.
Viewpoints
After the death of Gavin Cato, members of the black community believed that the decision to remove Lifsh from the scene first was racially motivated. They also said that this was one example of a perceived system of preferential treatment afforded to Jews in Crown Heights.[ The preferential treatment was reported to include biased actions by law enforcement and uneven allocations of government resources, amongst others. Many members of the black community were concerned that the number of Jews in the community had increased and that they were buying all of the property in the crowded area.
An interview with Rabbi Shmuel Butman, published in 1991, mentions a police directive to Hatzolah to transport Lifsh, along with Jews already injured by rioters, without transporting either of the Cato children. "We did exactly what the police officers wisely advised us."] Based on protesters' statements and actions during the rioting, Butman said, "We were always hoping that after World War II no Jew would ever be killed just for being Jewish, but this is what happened in the city of New York." In his eulogy at the funeral, the Rev. Al Sharpton
Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, talk show host and politician. Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic ...
referred to "diamond dealers" (a Jewish business) and said, "It's an accident to allow an apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
ambulance service in the middle of Crown Heights."
A writer for ''City Journal'' criticized the news media for downplaying the role of antisemitism in the riots, noting various antisemitic displays, such as a banner displayed at the funeral of Cato that said, "Hitler did not do the job". Edward S. Shapiro
Edward S. Shapiro (born 1938) is a historian of American history and American Jewish history. He received his BA at Georgetown University and his PhD at Harvard University. His doctoral dissertation was ''The American Distributists and the New Deal ...
, a historian at Seton Hall University
Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesan un ...
, later described the riot as "the most serious anti-Semitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
incident in American history
The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...
" and published a book about it in 2006. He notes that there are many interpretations of what happened:
Riots and murders
Yankel Rosenbaum killing
About three hours after the riots began, early on the morning of August 20, a group of approximately 20 young black men surrounded Yankel Rosenbaum, a 29-year-old Jewish University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...
student in the United States conducting research for his doctorate. They stabbed him several times in the back and beat him severely, fracturing his skull. Before being taken to the hospital, Rosenbaum identified 16-year-old Lemrick Nelson Jr. as his assailant in a line-up shown to him by the police.[ Rosenbaum died later that night because the doctor didn't notice a stab wound in his chest. Nelson was charged with murder as an adult; he was acquitted at trial.
Following that trial, Australian attorney Norman Rosenbaum became an advocate for his late brother, inspiring protests that included a shutdown of the Brooklyn Bridge and a demonstration at Gracie Mansion, the mayor's official residence.
Nelson later was convicted in federal court of violating Rosenbaum's civil rights and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Nelson eventually admitted that he had stabbed Rosenbaum.
]
Rioting
For three days following the accident, numerous African Americans and Caribbean Americans of the neighborhood, joined by growing numbers of non-residents, rioted in Crown Heights. In the rioting of the ensuing three days, according to Edward Shapiro, many of the rioters "did not even live in Crown Heights."[
During the riots, Jews were injured, stores were looted, and cars and homes were damaged. The rioters identified Jewish homes by the mezuzot affixed to the front doors.][
An additional 350 police officers were added to the regular duty roster on August 20 and were assigned to Crown Heights in an attempt to quell the rioting. After episodes of rock- and bottle-throwing involving hundreds of blacks and Jews, and after groups of blacks marched through Crown Heights chanting " No Justice, No Peace!", "Death to the Jews!", and "Whose streets? Our streets!", an additional 1,200 police officers were sent to confront rioters in Crown Heights.][
On the third day of the disturbances, Al Sharpton and ]Sonny Carson
Sonny is a common nickname and occasional given name. Often it can be a derivative of the English word "Son", a name derived from the Ancient Germanic element *sunn meaning "sun", a nickname derived from the Italian name Salvatore (especially in N ...
led a march. The marchers proceeded through Crown Heights carrying antisemitic signs and burning an Israeli flag. Rioters threw bricks and bottles at police; shots were fired at police and police cars were pelted and overturned, including the Police Commissioner's car.[
Riots escalated to the extent that a detachment of 200 police officers was overwhelmed and had to retreat for their safety. On August 22, over 1,800 police officers, including mounted and motorcycle units, had been dispatched to stop the attacks on people and property.][
By the time the three days of rioting ended, 152 police officers and 38 civilians were injured, 27 vehicles were destroyed, seven stores were looted or burned,] and 225 cases of robbery and burglary were committed.[ At least 129 arrests were made during the riots,][ including 122 blacks and seven whites. Property damage was estimated at one million dollars.][
]
Related shooting murder
On September 5, two weeks after the riot had been controlled, Anthony Graziosi, an Italian sales representative with a white beard dressed in dark business attire, was driving in the neighborhood. As he stopped at a traffic light at 11 pm, six blocks away from where Yankel Rosenbaum had been murdered, a group of four black men surrounded his car and one of them shot and killed him. It was alleged by Graziosi's family and their attorney, as well as Senator Al D'Amato, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (March 16, 1927 – March 26, 2003) was an American politician, diplomat and sociologist. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented New York in the United States Senate from 1977 until 2001 and served as an ...
, State Attorney General Robert Abrams, former Mayor Ed Koch, and a number of advocacy organizations, that Graziosi's resemblance to a Hasidic Jew precipitated his murder. The New York Police Department, Mayor Dinkins, newspaper columnist Mike McAlary, and the U.S. Justice Department did not agree. The murder was not treated as a hate crime
A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...
.
Court case
A grand jury
A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...
composed of 10 black, 8 white, and 5 Hispanic jurors found no cause to indict Lifsh. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes explained that under New York law, the single act of "losing control of a car" is not criminal negligence, even if death or injury resulted. Lifsh waived immunity and testified before the grand jury.[ About an hour after hearing Lifsh's testimony, the grand jury voted not to indict him. Subsequently, Lifsh moved to ]Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, where his family lives, because he claimed his life was threatened. In Israel, Lifsh settled in the Lubavitch village of Kfar Chabad.
Afterwards, Hynes fought unsuccessfully for the public release of the testimony that the grand jury had heard. His lawsuit was dismissed, and the judge noted that more than three-quarters of the witnesses who had been contacted refused to waive their right to privacy. The judge also expressed concern for the witnesses' safety.
Aftermath
Impact on the 1993 mayoral race
The Crown Heights riot contributed to the defeat of David Dinkins in his second mayoral bid. He was attacked by many political adversaries in his reelection bid, including vocal proponents of "black nationalism, back-to-Africa, economic radicalism, and racial exclusiveness."[
]
Girgenti Report
On November 17, 1992, New York Governor Mario Cuomo gave the Director of Criminal Justice Services, Richard H. Girgenti, the authority to investigate the rioting and the Nelson trial. The ''Girgenti Report'' was compiled by over 40 lawyers and investigators. The 656-page document, dated July 1993, is available through a website of the Washington, DC-based Police Foundation, which prefaces the report with a disclaimer that the "review does not seek to put blame on any entity for what happened..."
The report was extremely critical of Police Commissioner Lee Brown Lee Brown may refer to:
*Lee Brown (footballer) (born 1990), English footballer, for Portsmouth FC
* Lee P. Brown (born 1937), police department chief and mayor of Houston
* Lee Bradley Brown (1971–2011), British tourist allegedly beaten to death ...
. The report also criticized Mayor Dinkins for poor handling of the riots. However, the report found no evidence to support the most severe charge against Dinkins and Brown: that they had purposely delayed the police response in order to allow rioters to "vent" their rage.
The first night of the riot, Dinkins, along with Police Commissioner Brown, both African Americans, went to Crown Heights to talk to the community to dispel the rumors about the circumstances surrounding the accident. They had no appreciable influence on the rioters, most of whom were young black men.[
In a 16-minute speech on the Thanksgiving holiday following the riot, Dinkins rebutted allegations that he had prevented police from protecting citizens in Crown Heights.][ The Jewish community believed Dinkins failed to contain the riot and failed to exercise his responsibility, to their detriment.
]
Use of the term "pogrom"
The Crown Heights riot was an important issue that was raised repeatedly on the campaign trail in the 1993 mayoral election.[Interpretations of the Crown Heights Riot, Edward S. Shapiro, ''American Jewish History'', Volume 90, Number 2, June 2002, pp. 97–122.] According to Edward S. Shapiro, politicians opposed to Mayor Dinkins used the word "pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
" to characterize the riot in order to discredit the mayor's response to the riot, writing "the controversy over how to define the Crown Heights riot was not merely an issue of semantics."[
]Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 198 ...
, who would be elected as the next mayor of New York, referred to the Crown Heights riot as a "pogrom" on July 1, 1993, in a speech at Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by Sunset Park to the north, Dyker Heights to the east, the Narrows and the Belt Parkway to the west, and Fort Hamilton Army Base and ...
: "You can use whatever word you want, but in fact for three days people were beaten up, people were sent to the hospital because they were Jewish. There's no question that not enough was done about it by the city of New York. One definition of pogrom is violence where the state doesn't do enough to prevent it." Other political opponents to Dinkins used the term, including Ed Koch, who had been defeated by Dinkins in the 1989 Democratic mayoralty primary, and Andrew Stein
Andrew Stein (born Andrew J. Finkelstein; March 4, 1945) is an American Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician who served on the New York City Council and was its last president, and as Manhattan Borough President.
Early life
St ...
, a candidate in the 1993 Democratic mayoral primary.[ The term had been used previously in 1991 by journalists such as ]A. M. Rosenthal
Abraham Michael Rosenthal (May 2, 1922 – May 10, 2006) was an American journalist who served as ''The New York Times'' executive editor from 1977 to 1986. Previously he was the newspaper's city editor and managing editor. Near the end of his tenu ...
in ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' and Eric Breindel
Eric Marc Breindel (1955–1998) was an American neoconservative writer and former editorial page editor of the ''New York Post''.
Early life
Breindel grew up in an upper-middle class Jewish family in New York. His parents were refugees of Hitle ...
in the ''New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'', and politicians such as New York City Councilman Noach Dear and later by Judah Gribetz, president of the JCRC of New York.[ By September 1991, it had become routine within Jewish circles to describe the riot as a pogrom. Some Jews continued to use this term for the riot a decade later,][ as shown by articles in publications such as '' Jewish Week'', '']The Jerusalem Post
''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...
'', ''The Forward
''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ' ...
'' and '' The Jewish Press''; others went further and called it "America's Kristallnacht".[
Use of the word was rejected by Dinkins and his supporters, primarily on the basis that a pogrom by definition is state-sponsored.][ Dinkins said "To suggest that this is pogromis not to contribute to the resolution of the problem but to exacerbate tensions and problems that are there." Dinkins was personally offended by the use of "pogrom" since it insinuated that the riot was state-sanctioned and that he personally was an antisemite.][ "I am incensed by it... t ispatently untrue and unfair."
Michael Stanislawski, Professor of Jewish History at Columbia University, wrote in 1992 that it was "historically inaccurate" to couple "pogrom" with Crown Heights, because the word denoted organized violence against Jews "having some sort of governmental involvement."][ Journalists also disagreed with the use of the term, including Joyce Purnick in ''The New York Times'', ]Earl Caldwell
Earl Welton "Teach" Caldwell (April 9, 1905 – September 15, 1981) was an American professional baseball pitcher whose career saw him win more than 330 games over 29 seasons, 1926 to 1954, including 33 victories in Major League Baseball (MLB) a ...
in the ''New York Daily News
The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'', and an article in ''The City Sun
''The City Sun'' was a weekly newspaper that was published in Brooklyn from 1984 through 1996. Its primary focus was on issues of interest to African Americans in New York City.
''The City Sun'' was founded by African-American journalists Andrew ...
''. Rev. Al Sharpton said that Giuliani was engaged in "race-baiting" by using the word "pogrom."[ ]Henry Siegman
Henry Siegman (born 1930) is a Weimar Republic, German-born American. He is President of the U.S./Middle East Project (USMEP), an initiative focused on U.S.-Middle East policy and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, launched by the Council on Fo ...
and Marc D. Stern of the American Jewish Congress
The American Jewish Congress (AJCongress or AJC) is an association of American Jews organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts.
History
The AJCongress was ...
also publicly rejected use of the term to refer to the riot.[
In 2011, shortly before the twentieth anniversary of the riots, an editorial in '']The Jewish Week
''The Jewish Week'' is a weekly independent community newspaper targeted towards the Jewish community of the metropolitan New York City area. ''The Jewish Week'' covers news relating to the Jewish community in NYC. In March 2016, ''The Jewish We ...
'' wrote: "A divisive debate over the meaning of pogrom, lasting for more than two years, could have easily been ended if the mayor simply said to the victims of Crown Heights, yes, I understand why you experienced it as a pogrom."
Ethnic relations
Prior to the riots, Eastern Parkway divided the Black community in northern Crown Heights and the Jewish community in southern Crown Heights. Efforts aimed at the improvement of the relations between Black people and Jews in Crown Heights began almost immediately following the rioting. Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden summoned the leaders of each of the ethnic communities to Borough Hall within days after the riots ended, creating what became known as the Crown Heights Coalition. The Coalition, led by Edison O. Jackson
Edison O. Jackson (born October 1, 1942) was the sixth president of Bethune-Cookman University. Previously, he was president of Medgar Evers College from 1989 to 2009.
In 2013, Jackson was appointed president of Bethune-Cookman University. He ...
, then President of Medgar Evers College
Medgar Evers College is a public college in New York City. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY), offering baccalaureate and associate degrees. It was officially established in 1970 through cooperation between educator ...
, and Rabbi Shea Hecht
Shea Hecht is an American Chabad rabbi, writer and radio broadcaster. He serves as chairman of the board of the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education.
Hecht is a vocal supporter of political candidates. According to ''The G ...
, chairman of the Board of the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE), operated for ten years as an inter-group forum in which to air neighborhood concerns and work out issues. Golden used the Coalition to initiate interracial projects designed to promote dialogue.["Beep Honor Peace Coalition: Crown Heights leaders reflect on 10-year milestone"](_blank)
''New York Daily News'', August 23, 2001. One project involved sending a Jewish leader and a Black leader together in a pair to public intermediate and high schools in the area to answer questions from the children about each other's cultures.
A week after the riots, Hatzolah helped repair an ambulance of a Black-owned volunteer service. The following year, the Brooklyn Children's Museum held an exhibit on the contributions made by Black people and Jews in New York. In 1993, the Rev. Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator ...
was active in promoting improved Black-Jewish relations. In 1993, a series of neighborhood basketball games were scheduled between the two groups, including a scrimmage held as part of the halftime entertainment of a New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...
vs. Philadelphia 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eas ...
professional basketball game. Also that year, Rabbi Israel Shemtov, whose anti-crime patrol had long been perceived by many Black residents as biased against them, rushed to the aid of a Black woman who had been shot on the street in Crown Heights, putting her in his car and taking her to the hospital. The Crown Heights Mediation Center was established in 1998 to help resolve local differences, also a direct outcome of the Coalition.
Anniversary commemorations
On August 19, 2001, a street fair was held in memory of Cato and Rosenbaum, and their relatives met and exchanged mementos in hopes of healing in Crown Heights. Again in 2016, family members Carmel Cato and Norman Rosenbaum planned to meet together to commemorate their loss.
Twenty years after the riot, a Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
synagogue invited Sharpton to participate in a panel discussion marking the anniversary. Norman Rosenbaum, brother of the murdered Yankel Rosenbaum, was outraged, saying inviting Sharpton to speak was "an absolute disgrace" and that his "vile rhetoric incited the rioting." He added that Sharpton "did absolutely nothing then to improve black-Jewish relations — and nothing since." Sharpton expressed regret for some aspects of his involvement. He insisted that his marches were peaceful, although his language and tone "sometimes exacerbated tensions."
In a 2019 speech to a Reform Jewish
Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous searc ...
gathering, Sharpton said that he could have "done more to heal rather than harm". He recalled receiving a call from Coretta Scott King at the time, during which she told him "sometimes you are tempted to speak to the applause of the crowd rather than the heights of the cause, and you will say cheap things to get cheap applause rather than do high things to raise the nation higher".
Demographics
To this day, the demographic trends of Crown Heights remain largely the same as in 1991. Jews did not flee from Crown Heights, and the Lubavitch
Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic groups ...
population of Crown Heights increased after the riot, leading to an expansion of the area in which they reside.
In popular culture
* On the sketch comedy show '' In Living Color'', the 1991 season 3 premiere episode did a sketch parodying ''West Side Story
''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.
Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid-1 ...
'' called ''Crown Heights Story''. The skit was cut from the DVD.
* Anna Deavere Smith interviewed more than 100 people directly and indirectly associated with the riot, and created her play ''Fires in the Mirror
''Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities'' (1992) is a one-person play by Anna Deavere Smith, an African-American playwright, author, actress, and professor. It explores the Crown Heights riot (which occurred in Crown H ...
'' (1992), which premiered the following year in New York. The one-woman show featured Smith playing the roles of numerous public and private figures, having drawn quotes from the transcripts of her interviews.
* A 2004 television movie, ''Crown Heights'', was made about the aftermath of the riot, starring Howie Mandel
Howard Michael Mandel (born November 29, 1955) is a Canadian-American comedian, television personality, actor, and producer. Mandel voiced the character Gizmo in the 1984 film ''Gremlins'' and the 1990 sequel '' Gremlins 2: The New Batch''. I ...
.
* A fictionalized version of the riots appeared in ''Law & Order
''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment, launching the '' Law & Order'' franchise.
''Law & Order'' aired its entire run on NBC, premiering on ...
''.
* ''Brooklyn Babylon
''Brooklyn Babylon'' is a 2001 film written and directed by Marc Levin, and a modern retelling of the Song of Solomon, set against the backdrop of the Crown Heights riot, starring Black Thought of The Roots.
Plot summary
In Brooklyn's Crown He ...
'', a feature film starring Tariq " Black Thought" Trotter and The Roots
The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy F ...
, presents a fictionalized version of Crown Heights neighborhood unrest in the 1990s.
See also
* List of incidents of civil unrest in New York City
* List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
Listed are major episodes of civil unrest in the United States. This list does not include the numerous incidents of destruction and violence associated with various sporting events.
18th century
*1783 – Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, June 20 ...
* New York City teachers' strike of 1968
The New York City teachers' strike of 1968 was a months-long confrontation between the new community-controlled school board in the largely black Ocean Hill– Brownsville neighborhoods of Brooklyn and New York City's United Federation of Teache ...
– which took place immediately to the east of Crown Heights in Brownsville and was another chapter in African-American—Jewish relationships.
References
Further reading
* Conaway, Carol B. "Crown Heights: Politics and Press Coverage of the Race War That Wasn't." ''Polity'' (1999): 93–118
in JSTOR
* Goldschmidt, Henry. ''Race and Religion among the Chosen Peoples of Crown Heights'' (Rutgers University Press, 2006
excerpt
*Shapiro, Edward S. "Interpretations of the Crown Heights riot." ''American Jewish History'' (2002) 90#2 pp: 97–122
online
*Shapiro, Edward S. ''Crown Heights: Blacks, Jews, and the 1991 Brooklyn Riot'' (U. Press of New England, 2006
online
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