This chapter was about efforts to bridge differences between Blacks and Jews in Crown Heights. In my last post I said that the only way to prevent conflict in Crown Heights are for both sides to stop alienating themselves from each other. I stand by what I wrote in my last post that the decision to form a good relationship between the Black and Jewish community rests on the shoulders of the Jews. To begin, most Black leaders acknowledge the alienation of the Jewish community from the Black community as a problem. However, most Jewish leaders don’t see their isolation as a problem. Actually, that is their goal because they view a relationship with the Black community as threatening to their religion.
The only times these two communities form relationships, albeit short and bad ones, are during conflicts like the one in August 1991 marred with racial and religious stereotypes and misunderstandings. It seems until the Jewish community realizes the importance of creating a good relationship with the Black community conflicts like this will always happen echoing the same themes over and over again. I believe the fear and intolerance of the Jewish community against the Black community destroys any hope of peace in Crown Heights. I only signal out the Jewish community because most of the Black community is eager to establish a relationship with the Jewish community but are taken aback by their insistence of isolating themselves.
They don’t have to share homes or share foods in order to form a relationship because as this chapter states most New Yorkers don’t do that. However, few New York neighborhoods have the racial and religious tensions that exist in Crown Heights. The Jewish community looks down at the Black community though they claim a “respect for diversity.” Looking down is not a form of respect. They look down on the Black community as Gentiles as well as Blacks believed to be represented by the Labor Day Parade. However, the Jewish community look at their own community as right, religious, and moral. They are even more hospitable to Jews halfway around the world than their Black neighbors next door. This view that most of the Jewish community shares, however, is a relative and stereotypical view of the Black community and of their own community as well.
