Crown Heights riot - Revision history

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Category overhaul (approved)

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Chabad Bot: Background: 1967–70 Community Corporation conflict and JDL role (Russ 1981)

2026-10-16T14:07:28Z

Background: 1967–70 Community Corporation conflict and JDL role (Russ 1981)

Chabad Bot: Relabel sources: critical/neoconservative rather than polemical (house style)

2026-10-16T10:00:36Z

Relabel sources: critical/neoconservative rather than polemical (house style)

David at 23:22, 15 October 2026

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Chabad Bot: New page: 1991 Crown Heights riot

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New page: 1991 Crown Heights riot

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 [[Category:Chabad-Lubavitch|Crown Heights riot]]
 [[Category:Riots|Crown Heights]]
-[[Category:Antisemitism|Crown Heights riot]]
+[[Category:Anti-Semitism|Crown Heights riot]]
 [[Category:Racism|Crown Heights riot]]
 [[Category:New York City|Crown Heights riot]]

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 [[Category:Chabad-Lubavitch|Crown Heights riot]]
 [[Category:Riots|Crown Heights]]
 [[Category:Antisemitism|Crown Heights riot]]
 [[Category:Racism|Crown Heights riot]]
 [[Category:New York City|Crown Heights riot]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:07, 16 October 2026
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	In the Chabad-side account published by [[Chabad.org]] for the 30th anniversary, the Rebbe told a gathering on the last day of Passover, 10 April 1969: "A phenomenon has recently spread among the Jewish people, like a plague, G‑d forbid, of abandoning Jewish neighborhoods".<ref name="Margolin" /> The same piece describes a meeting between the Rebbe and Mayor [[John Lindsay]] on 26 November 1968 at which Lindsay pledged support "for the Rebbe's stabilization efforts, including security and policing", and records that "during the 15 years preceding the 1991 riot, at least 10 members of the Crown Heights Jewish community were murdered".<ref name="Margolin" /> Goldschmidt notes that, following the Rebbe's 1969 call, the [[Crown Heights Jewish Community Council]] in the 1970s worked with Hasidic developers to form Chevra Machazikei Hashchuna, the Coalition to Strengthen the Neighborhood.<ref name="Goldschmidt105" />		In the Chabad-side account published by [[Chabad.org]] for the 30th anniversary, the Rebbe told a gathering on the last day of Passover, 10 April 1969: "A phenomenon has recently spread among the Jewish people, like a plague, G‑d forbid, of abandoning Jewish neighborhoods".<ref name="Margolin" /> The same piece describes a meeting between the Rebbe and Mayor [[John Lindsay]] on 26 November 1968 at which Lindsay pledged support "for the Rebbe's stabilization efforts, including security and policing", and records that "during the 15 years preceding the 1991 riot, at least 10 members of the Crown Heights Jewish community were murdered".<ref name="Margolin" /> Goldschmidt notes that, following the Rebbe's 1969 call, the [[Crown Heights Jewish Community Council]] in the 1970s worked with Hasidic developers to form Chevra Machazikei Hashchuna, the Coalition to Strengthen the Neighborhood.<ref name="Goldschmidt105" />
		+
		+	In his 1981 doctoral history of the [[Jewish Defense League]] (JDL), written from close to the League, Shlomo Russ traces an earlier conflict over the anti-poverty Crown Heights Community Corporation. He writes that "Only the Hasidim remained, most of them followers of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson", and that "Rabbi Schneerson had long fought for Jews to remain in Crown Heights". The Jewish Community Council challenged the October 1967 corporation elections, alleging intimidation of Jewish voters, and the challenge was upheld in April 1968.<ref name="Russ214">Shlomo M. Russ, "The 'Zionist Hooligans': The Jewish Defense League" (PhD thesis, City University of New York, 1981; UMI 8112371), pp. 214–16.</ref> Russ records that "JDL was called to protect the Jewish poll watchers" at the February 1969 elections. In March 1970 armed JDL members went to the corporation's office after it was taken over by a group led by Robert (Sonny) Carson.<ref name="Russ216">Russ (1981), pp. 216–17.</ref> In 1970 JDL members also planned a bombing in Crown Heights in retaliation for the burning of a Jewish communal office. The plan was dropped after the Palestinian hijackings of September 1970.<ref name="Russ235">Russ (1981), pp. 235, 246.</ref> Russ describes these events largely from the JDL's side; the Black accounts are not represented in his narrative.

	=== Grievances and policing ===		=== Grievances and policing ===

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 In the weeks before the riot the City College professor [[Leonard Jeffries]] had been widely criticised for remarks about Jews. In July 1991, according to a reference biography, "he gave a speech in Albany, New York, that many considered antiwhite and, especially, anti-Semitic"; CUNY later cut his term as department chairman, and a federal jury in 1993 found this had violated his First Amendment rights.<ref name="EBSCOJeffries" /><!-- Editor's note: the EBSCO entry does not connect Jeffries to Crown Heights; the link is made by the ADL (1992) and Gourevitch (1993), both partisan. --> The [[Anti-Defamation League]] (ADL), in a 1992 advocacy report, quoted an ''[[Amsterdam News]]'' editorial of 17 August 1991, two days before the accident, warning of "the conflagration that will surely come should any kind of incident occur, by accident or design, that threatens the well-being of Professor Jeffries".<ref name="ADL2" /> [[Philip Gourevitch]], writing in the neoconservative ''[[Commentary]]'' in 1993, argued that "anti-Semitism was in the ether" and that Black newspapers including the ''Amsterdam News'' and the ''[[City Sun]]'' had defended Jeffries.<ref name="Gourevitch" />
 The ''New York Times'' reported that in his Albany lecture of 20 July Jeffries spoke of "a conspiracy, planned and plotted and programmed out of Hollywood," by "people called Greenberg and Weisberg and Trigliani".<ref name="NYT1991Jeffries" /> Among those Gourevitch lists as having defended Jeffries that August was Sharpton.<ref name="Gourevitch" />
-<!-- Editor's note: Sharpton's 1991 support for Jeffries rests here on Gourevitch (Commentary, polemical). The widely repeated Sharpton line "If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house" is found only in partisan/opinion sources (The Jewish Star, which dates it 18 Aug 1991; The New Republic 2013) with no primary citation; not used. No reliable source found for Sharpton later distancing himself from Jeffries; not added. -->
+<!-- Editor's note: Sharpton's 1991 support for Jeffries rests here on Gourevitch (Commentary, neoconservative opinion). The widely repeated Sharpton line "If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house" is found only in partisan/opinion sources (The Jewish Star, which dates it 18 Aug 1991; The New Republic 2013) with no primary citation; not used. No reliable source found for Sharpton later distancing himself from Jeffries; not added. -->
 <!-- AWAITING: Amsterdam News and City Sun, July–Sept 1991 (originals). The 17 Aug 1991 editorial is quoted here only at second hand via the ADL. -->
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 <ref name="UPI1991">Gary Rosenberger, [https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/08/27/Hundreds-mourn-boy-whose-death-sparked-riots/3563683265600/ "Hundreds mourn boy whose death sparked riots"], ''United Press International'', 27 August 1991, accessed 15 October 2026.</ref>
 <ref name="WaPo1991">Associated Press, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/08/27/grief-anger-at-funeral-in-brooklyn/30cfa3f1-92f1-4739-9930-ae2da77d87e2/ "Grief, Anger at Funeral in Brooklyn: Dinkins Seeks Peace, Sharpton Asks Justice"], ''The Washington Post'', 27 August 1991, accessed 15 October 2026.</ref>
-<ref name="Gourevitch">[[Philip Gourevitch]], [https://www.commentary.org/articles/philip-gourevitch/the-crown-heights-riot-its-aftermath/ "The Crown Heights Riot & Its Aftermath"], ''Commentary'', January 1993, accessed 15 October 2026. Neoconservative opinion journal; polemical.</ref>
+<ref name="Gourevitch">[[Philip Gourevitch]], [https://www.commentary.org/articles/philip-gourevitch/the-crown-heights-riot-its-aftermath/ "The Crown Heights Riot & Its Aftermath"], ''Commentary'', January 1993, accessed 15 October 2026. Neoconservative opinion journal.</ref>
 <ref name="Slate2003">William Saletan and Avi Zenilman, [https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2003/10/the-gaffes-of-al-sharpton.html "The gaffes of Al Sharpton"], ''Slate'', 7 October 2003, accessed 15 October 2026. Critical journalism; gives no source for the eulogy text.</ref>
 <ref name="ADL1">[[Anti-Defamation League]], [https://phdn.org/antisem/noirs/The_Anti_Semitism_of_Black_Demagogues_and_Extremists-ADL-1992.pdf ''The Anti-Semitism of Black Demagogues and Extremists''] (New York: ADL, 1992), Introduction. Jewish advocacy organisation; partisan.</ref>

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-{{Chabad sidebar}}
 {{short description|'''Three days of violence in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in August 1991, after a car in the Lubavitcher Rebbe's motorcade killed Gavin Cato and a mob killed Yankel Rosenbaum; called a "riot", a "rebellion" or a "pogrom" depending on the speaker'''}}
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 | label7 = Other names | data7 = Crown Heights riots; Crown Heights disturbances; Crown Heights pogrom; Crown Heights rebellion/uprising
 }}
+{{Chabad sidebar}}
 The '''Crown Heights riot''' (also called the '''Crown Heights riots''', '''disturbances''', '''pogrom''' or '''rebellion''') was three days and nights of violence in the [[Crown Heights]] neighbourhood of [[Brooklyn]], New York, in August 1991. On the evening of 19 August a station wagon in the motorcade of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, [[Menachem Mendel Schneerson]], went through the intersection of Utica Avenue and President Street, was struck by another car and mounted the pavement, killing seven-year-old '''Gavin Cato''', the son of Guyanese immigrants, and badly injuring his cousin Angela.<ref name="GirgentiV1p4" /> Rumours that the [[Hatzolah]] ambulance had taken away the Hasidic driver while leaving the Black children to die "fueled the disturbance for three days", according to the New York State inquiry.<ref name="GirgentiV1p4" /> About three hours later '''Yankel Rosenbaum''', a 29-year-old Australian Jewish scholar, was stabbed by a group of young Black men and died. Over the following days roving groups attacked Jewish homes, people and cars, threw rocks and bottles at police, and looted shops; the state's [[Girgenti Report]] counted "over 150 police officers and at least thirty-eight civilians" injured and found that the city's response was "inadequate" until the fourth day.<ref name="GirgentiV1p10" /><ref name="GirgentiV1p206" />

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 {{Infobox
 | title = Crown Heights riot (1991)
 | image = <!-- No free image verified. Leave blank unless a public-domain or CC image is confirmed. -->

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 == Notes ==
-{{reflist|refs=
+<references>
 <ref name="GirgentiV1Letter">Richard H. Girgenti, ''A Report to the Governor on the Disturbances in Crown Heights'', vol. I: ''An Assessment of the City's Preparedness and Response to Civil Disorder'' (Albany: New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, July 1993), covering letter to Governor Mario Cuomo. [https://nysl.ptfs.com/data/Library1/Library1/pdf/28598507_V1.pdf PDF] (New York State Library). Official report.</ref>
 <ref name="GirgentiV1p4">Girgenti, vol. I (1993), Executive Summary, p. 4.</ref>
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 <ref name="Smith5">Smith, ''Fires in the Mirror'' (1993), "Anonymous Lubavitcher Woman: Static", pp. 5–8. Interview testimony as edited by Smith.</ref>
 <ref name="Smith19">Smith, ''Fires in the Mirror'' (1993), "The Reverend Al Sharpton: Me and James's Thing", p. 19. Interview testimony as edited by Smith.</ref>
-}}
+</references>
 == Further reading ==