Another Face to the Riots

By Marina Stanley, bed-stuy.patch.com

Friday, August 19, 2011, marks the 20th Anniversary of the Crown Heights riots — a violent chapter in Brooklyn’s history that at once tore apart a neighborhood and raised questions about the future of African-American and Jewish-American relations in New York City.

Although outside the media’s radar, there are hundreds of men and women behind the scenes who work daily to make sure the community is a peaceful and safe place for all.

One such person is 72-year-old Michael Behrman, a member of the Lubavitch Jewish sect and project director of “Operation Survival,” a Crown Heights substance abuse prevention organization for at risk youth.

Under his large, dark hat and gray beard he smiles, sharing stories of jazz conversations with his African-American neighbors, highlighting the commonalities of what he calls “the human experience” that comes in the form of having to shovel snow or travel to work in the cold New York winters.

Behrman still has a slightly more Utopian view of Crown Heights and downplays racial discord past and present. He remarks, blacks and Jews live side by side on his quiet tree-lined block. He adds, that was also the case even before the riots.

“In those days, we got along. It wasn’t as some made it out to be as a racial hotbed waiting to explode,” he said of the ethnically-mixed community before the clashes.”We all got along, there were some isolated incidents, but we got along.”

Behrman claims, after little Cato’s accident, many demonstrators were bussed in by Reverend Al Sharpton. Those groups, he believes, incited most of the clashes and violence in the days to follow.

“These really weren’t my neighbors. I knew my neighbors. These mobs were outsiders of the Crown Heights community.”

In the heart of this angry explosion, Behrman was arriving back from a trip in the mountains of Tannersville, New York. Radio reception was bad and he says he didn’t know the full extent of what was going on.

When they drove back into Crown Heights, he found himself and friend in a car surrounded by young people shouting, “Get the Jew,” hurling cinder blocks, bottles and bricks at the vehicle. In a terrified panic, they eventually maneuvered out of the crowd but he said, “We were scared they wanted to kill us.”

Behrman said they reported the violence to a police officer on the street and stunningly the officer responded, “What do you want me to do? They’re throwing rocks at us too.”

When the dust settled, there was a certain mistrust, but eventually, things got back to normal, he said.

Historically, “Both communities have gone through tremendous persecution and suffering. We have that in common,” said Behrman.

Plus, Behrman admits, he wasn’t always the observant Jew most see today– that came much later in life. Previously, he worked in film production, frequented Jazz clubs and “grew up watching the drug culture of the 1960s.”

Today, he’s married with four children and several grandchildren.

“The average citizen is not looking to get into anything,” said Behrman. “We are working people, we live on the same blocks, same apartments and want the same things for our kids — to do well, that they are healthy, successful.”

Many of the scars of the Crown Heights riots have healed, but there’s always more that can be learned.

Behrman’s advice: “Respect each other’s culture and live in harmony. We’re New Yorkers!”