In Henry Goldmschmidt’s chapter “Kosher Homes, Racial Boundaries,” he discusses how culinary and dietary restrictions that arise within Jewish law create boundaries, which serve as yet another force of division between the Jewish and Black communities in Crown Heights. On the one hand, these culinary restrictions create new boundaries between the two communities because of practical issues. For example, the extensive list of laws of kashrut that exist in Judaism make it very hard for Jews to eat with non-Jews. Because eating is often intertwined with social events, the Jews of Crown Heights would have a very hard time trying to socialize the Blacks in their neighborhood even if they wanted to.
On the other hand, Goldschmidt also explains that New Yorkers in general don’t really associate with their neighbors. For example, it is mentioned in the book that even if you greet your neighbor when you see him in the hallway of your apartment building, chances are you’ve never actually invited each other inside of your apartments. This is because, as Goldschmidt explains, in America the idea of the home has become an area specifically designated to private life since the Industrial Revolution. For example, Goldschmidt quotes Tamara Hareven, who argues that “the household was recast as the family’s private retreat…a specialized site for the family’s consumption, child-rearing, and private life.”
So which one of these two issues actually explains the separation between the Lubavitch and non-Jewish community in Crown Heights: the laws of kashrut or the American ideal of the private home? I believe that the answer is not entirely explained by either of these two explanations. Rather, I think it goes back to what Goldschmidt discussed earlier in the book, which is one of the fundamental beliefs of the Lubavitch community. The Lubavitch community tries very hard to remain separate from the non-Jews around because they are scared that by associating with them, they might lose their own religious observance. Furthermore, instead of looking at kashrus as the main reason that the Crown Heights Lubavitch community doesn’t socialize, we should look at it as one of the many ways that they try to keep themselves separate. The real reason stems from the way that they view themselves and the non-Jews around them. If they truly wanted to socialize with their neighbors, they would be able to find ways to maintain their observance of kashrut in the process. Not that it would be very easy, but I don’t believe that the Crown Heights Lubavitch community is very interested in trying at all.
