Got to Keep The Peace Going

Community members in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood gathering on Thursday to mark the 20th anniversary of race riots there.

The riots tore through the neighborhood in 1991, stoked by tensions between the Jewish and black communities living side-by-side.

The rioting began Aug. 19 of that year after a 7-year-old black boy, Gavin Cato, was accidentally struck and killed by a Jewish driver. Three hours later, a gang of angry blacks shouting “Get the Jew!” descended on and fatally stabbed Yankel Rosenbaum, a bochur from from Australia. For more than two days, stores were looted stores, police cars were burned and bottles hurled.

At Thursday’s event, held at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, participants were in high spirits, enjoying kosher food catered by House of Glatt and talking about cooperation and tolerance.

Local political leaders and dignitaries attended, including Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Comptroller John Liu, State Senator Eric Adams, and City Council Members James and Eugene.

“This is Crown Heights’ opportunity to present a positive image of itself to the world,” said Rabbi Eli Cohen, the MC and Executive Director of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council (CHJCC) who was joined by Chairman Zaki Tamir, member Fishel Brownstein and political liaison Chanina Sperlin.

Jewish rapper DeScribe was on stage singing some of his hip-hop songs celebrating 20 years of positive progress in the community.

Honorees included Reuven and Arna Lipkind, Kenneth Bogan, Robert Mathews, Richard Green and Michoel Behrman, as well as the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and the Jewish Children’s Museum.

“We have to keep it going because I don’t know if the world realizes how close or the magnitude that Crown Heights could have been,” said Richard Green, Director of the Crown Heights Youth Collective.