How the Rebbe Upheld Crown Heights

“Thousands of Yidden lined Eastern Parkway as far as the eye could see on Rosh Hashanah afternoon,” recounts Rabbi Menachem Wolff in his diary of Tishrei 5725 with the Rebbe. “Relaxing in front of their homes after finishing their Yom Tov meals.“

Although these Crown Heights residents were not Lubavitcher Chassidim, many fondly looked forward to the yearly tashlich procession that the Rebbe would lead down Eastern Parkway toward the Botanical Gardens.

Dressed in their Yom Tov finery, they rose in respect when the Rebbe drew near, many wishing the Rebbe “Ah gut Yom Tov!”

For those who did not experience it, it is hard to imagine how diverse and expansive the Jewish community of Crown Heights once was.

The Community That Was

“All my neighbors were frumme Yidden of assorted backgrounds,” muses Rabbi Yossel Katzman, who grew up in Crown Heights in the early 5720s.

Although a few Lubavitchers lived in Crown Heights to be in close proximity to the Rebbe, the surrounding areas was once shared with many different kehilos.
From the 5700s through the 5720s the borders of the Jewish community of Crown Heights ranged from Rochester Avenue to the east until Washington Avenue to the west, and extended as far south as Linden Boulevard and as far north as Atlantic Avenue.

Over 40 shuls of all types dotted the flourishing neighborhood. These included shuls as large as the impressive Young Israel congregation on Eastern Parkway and Albany Ave. (subsequently replaced with condos) and Chassidishe shtibelach like Viznitz (now Beis Binyomin) and Satmar (now “Shain’s Shul”).

Belz, Gur, Sadigur, Skver, Skulen, Sosnowic, Spinka and many others had shuls in Crown Heights for their members who resided there, and even a few Chassidishe rebbes were settled in Crown Heights at the time.

A number of Litvishe Shuls were also located in Crown Heights, including the Agudas Yisroel Shul on Crown Street, the Novominsker Beis Medrash on Carroll St. and Schenectady Avenue (now Kahal Chassidim), and others.

The building that now houses Oholei Torah Elementary and yeshiva gedola once served as a Conservative temple, the largest in all of Brooklyn. Alongside these shuls were tens of yeshivos and mikvaos. Bobov for example, had a large campus housing a yeshiva, shul and mikveh on S. Marks Place.

Kosher grocery stores and other Jewish businesses were found throughout Crown Heights, some in areas you would least expect these days. Utica Avenue was home to a kosher pizza store, Meal Mart, candy store, Flohr’s Judaica and much more.

Fearful Flight

The Crown Heights of then, which was calm and heimish, was abruptly shaken up around the end of 5725. What was perhaps the scheme of some self-serving real estate brokers, caused the majority of the neighborhood’s Jewish residents to flee, and quickly changing it to a predominantly low-income African-American neighborhood.

By 5729 (1969) almost all other Jews outside of Lubavitch had left the neighborhood. Even a number of Lubavitch families had moved to Boro Park, under the impression that Lubavitch would soon follow suit.

Those remaining in Crown Heights were subject to harassment and often violence from their new “neighbors.”

The young children playing in the yard of Lubavitcher Yeshiva at Bedford Avenue and Dean Street were often attacked during recess by lawless punks who plagued the streets. At Oholei Torah, located on Eastern Parkway and Buffalo Avenue, the children were being tormented as well.

Business owners were afraid to open their businesses too early in the morning. After dark, the streets of Crown Heights became inhospitable. Few wanted to take the chance of running into the criminals and gangs that roamed the neighborhood.

The police did little to stop the danger for their Lubavitch constituents, and the cries of help to local politicians fell mostly on deaf ears.

Only one voice rose to address the gloomy circumstances, and only one individual insisted that a completely different approach be taken…
The Rebbe.

At one farbrengen when addressing the dire need to uphold the Jewish neighborhood of Crown Heights, the Rebbe declared:
“כן יקום, עס וועט דא זיין די שכונה, מען דארף נאר טאן!
“The neighborhood will in fact remain here, we need only to act!”

*Read the complete story of the Rebbe’s tireless effort to keep the Jewish neighborhood of Crown Heights, and other articles spanning a wide variety of subjects, from the the death of a billionaire non-Jew, to the miraculous recovery of a Jew from Chicago, in the newly-released Chassidisher Derher Magazine for the month of Cheshvan, delivered by mail to thousands of subscribers around the world and available for purchase at Crown Heights retailers.

To read the full article, click here.

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