Conference taveng::bagels

Re: .0

>The Torah says, "the righteous one will be shown righteous, and the evil
>one, evil"

Indeed there *is* righteousness and evil in the world. The Lubavitcher
Rebbe wrote this _sicha_ long before the current pogrom began in
Crown Heights, but there is no verse which is more appropriate.

And a pogrom it was. Like Kishniev, mobs calling for (and, at least in
one case, carrying out) the lynching of Jews. Like Kristallnacht,
a pretext was chosen at random for the frenzied masses to focus on while 
screaming, "death to the Jews!" 

Like all civilized human beings, we (including the driver) mourn the
innocent victim of a tragic accident. But what of the deliberate
murder of a Jew? Dead Jews are no news. Jewish blood is cheap.

J'accuse! The media have suddenly taken very seriously their role as "even-
handed" reporters. Suddenly, when Jews are experiencing what is
arguably the worst incident of overt anti-Jewish violence in U.S.
history, the angelic newsmen cannot figure out who is at fault,
who is instigating the violence.

J'accuse! For three nights, the police -- not in Berlin, not in 
Frankfurt, not in Cologne -- the NEW YORK CITY POLICE turned their heads
as Jewish institutions and property were savagely burned and shattered,
as Jewish women and children stayed home lest their next trip to 
the corner grocery be their last.

J'accuse! The national and local civil-rights organizations which
were so much in evidence in recent incidents in Canarsie and
Bensonhurst have remarkably lost both their legs and their tongues
when it is Jews who are under attack.

J'accuse! Where are the national Jewish federations, leagues, committees,
congresses and councils? Could they perhaps have postponed their
urgent work on the new Jewish basketball courts and their salary-increase
meetings to organize their respective memberships to descend on Crown Heights
in the tens of thousands for a show of solidarity? Why were Selma and
Birmingham worthy of Jewish marchers, while Crown Heights merits little
more than a collective Jewish national shrug.

Jew-haters come in all shapes, sizes and colors. If we've learned nothing
else from the last 50 years of Jewish history it's that we must never
cower again in the face of our enemies. 

On the other hand, there have been glimmers of hope and light emerging
from the murk. Many courageous Jews did stand tall in the midst of the
pogrom to help fellow Jews in need - including members of the Lubavitchers'
traditional rivals, the Satmar Hasidim from Williamsburg. Unfortunately,
as usual, it takes a threat from the gentiles to make Jews realize that
they haven't the luxury to indulge in in-fighting, that indeed, a Hitler
or a Sharpton or a Jefferies couldn't care less what label a Jew bears,
or whether indeed the Jew has the foggiest notion about his own Jewish-
ness. Time and time again in our history, just when we thought we had
"arrived" in a new society and it was safe to drop our guard and simply
live in peace, human alarm clocks are sent to awaken us from our slumber
(see Rashi on _Vayeshev_Yaakov_ "And Jacob settled..."). 

Appeasement is never the answer, and it certainly is not in this case.
The rabble-rowsers are interested in their own agendas (mostly advancing
their own careers) and have no interest in facts -- evidenced by their
distortion of the facts, and their tell-tale ignoring of the facts when
presented with them.

As long as we refuse to face the stark reality of the Crown Heights
Pogrom, as long as we meekly shrink from exposing the guilt of the
guilty and the innocence of the innocent -- the haters will strike
with ever greater force and impunity. If we fail to distinguish good 
from evil, the evil will grow ever more evil.

(BTW, it is not just Crown Heights -- my car was hit by rocks in New
Jersey yesterday.)

Jem

We can draw another lesson from the actions of Ya'akov Avinu (our forefather 
Jacob) to guide us in these troubled times (I feel like one of those TV 
preachers...)

When Ya'akov wanted to return home after living with and working for his 
father-in-law, Laban, for more than twenty years, he saw that (parshat Vayetze),
"Laban was not with him as he was earlier."  Realizing that Laban would try to
steal his portion of the flock, Ya'akov come us with an underhanded scheme in
order to get his fair wage.  G-d appears to Ya'akov in a dream and shows him
that his efforts will succeed.

In the next parsha, Vayishlach, Ya'akov is confronted by his old nemisis, his
brother, Esav.  After taking some wise precautions, Ya'akov turns to G-d for 
salvation.  We see no immediate response from G-d.

Later that evening, a man, who we later find out is an angel, attacks Ya'akov 
and wrestles with him the entire night.  He changes Ya'akov name to Yisrael, 
"because you have stiven with G-d and man, and you prevailed."

Why does G-d send this angel to fight with Ya'akov.

IMHO, it was to teach him a lesson.  When dealing with Laban, on Laban's 
territory, the best Ya'akov could do sneak around in the night and get his way
underhandedly.  But when dealing with Esav, Ya'akov had returned home to Eretz
Yisrael.  Here, he should not sneak around and run away in the night, as he did
(with G-d's approval) with Laban.   When defending his own home, he should stand
up and fight.  In galut, he has to act like Ya'kov - which means, as Esav 
exclaimed when Ya'akov got the Beracha from Yitzchak, "tricky."  At home, he 
must, he must act like Yisrael - one who fights, even with G-d when necessary,
for what is right.

Ya'kov learned his lesson.  Instead of running away, he confronts Esav face to 
face.  Esav, seeing Ya'akov's strength, does not attack.

In Crown Hights and elsewhere, Esav surrounds us.  We do what we must to 
survive, but in Galut we are limited in our role to Ya'akov.  Only after we
assume the title Yisrael, which can only be in Eretz Yisrael, will we be fully
free to defend ourselves in the proper way.

Louuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
(pleeze excuse the potification, I got carried away...:-)

Re: .1

J'accuse was written by Emile Zola to protest the Dreyfus case in France.

A jewish (assimilated) periodist wrote as his reaction to the Dreyfus case
in France a pamphlet "Altneuland" (Old-new land). This pamphlet was the
catalizator for the political Zionism. The periodist was Theodore Herzl.

May be the answer is here...

Juan-Carlos Kiel

DEC Israel

Re: .2

>  When defending his own home, he should stand
>up and fight.  In galut, he has to act like Ya'kov - which means, as Esav 
>exclaimed when Ya'akov got the Beracha from Yitzchak, "tricky."  At home, he 
>must, he must act like Yisrael - one who fights, even with G-d when necessary,
>for what is right.

Re: .3

>May be the answer is here...
>
>Juan-Carlos Kiel
>
>DEC Israel

I saw a beautiful interpretation recently in a sefer
titled, "Aim Habanim Semaicha," (written by the Kadosh,
Rabbi Y. Teichtel, Hashem Yikom Damo) of a Rashi in
Genesis 32:23. The verse simply tells us that Jacob
transferred his goods and family over the River Yabok.
But Rashi points out that he did it in a strange way:

	...he acted like a bridge, with one foot on one
	side and the other on the far side...

Jacob was not exactly traveling light -- he had wives,
children, servants, cattle, camels...it would surely 
take several hours for one man to transfer everything 
from one side to the other. Think of what his leg
muscles must have felt like! He no doubt could have set 
some sort of makeshift bridge to accomplish the crossing
in a more efficient manner.

Rabbi Teichtel says that Rashi is telling us about
Jacob's life philosophy in these few words. It was
not only at the crossing of the Yabok that he stood
with one foot in Eretz Yisrael and the other in _chutz_
la'aretz_ (outside of Israel). The way he had survived
for twenty years in the evil Laban's house was that he
figuratively lived with one foot in his ancestral home-
land, and was ready at a moment's notice to return there.

A few people have contacted me saying that they have not
heard about the Crown Heights Pogrom before. In a nutshell,
blacks in Crown Heights began rioting, looting, burning
and attacking Jews in the area after an auto accident
in which a 7-year-old black child was killed. The driver
was Jewish. A 29-year-old Jewish student from Australia
was subsequently brutally murdered on the streets hy"d.
The insanity is unfortunately not yet over.

Jem

    Jem-
    
    I am surprised that you, of all people, would end your .1 reply in the
    manner you did - the last paragraph where you comment about rocks being
    thrown at you in New Jersey (where I live, by the way) with no details
    at all - location, circumstances, etc.
    
    That, to me, seems a little inflammatory itself.
    
    	-Barry-
    

Jem (Ah, you're back, I guess this conference will get moving again),

If the situation is "still going on", then please keep us informed.
After the initial rioting, there hasn't been much reporting about it 
here (in Israel).

I don't mean to join the knee-jerk reactions of those who live here
and say "Aha! I knew it would happen eventually -- Israel is the only
place for a Jew to live".  Still, I'm surprised that you of all people
would quote something like "[living] with one foot in his ancestral
homeland, ...ready at a moment's notice to return there."  What is this
business of half-measures?  Do you think it's reasonable to expect some
Jews to stay here and keep the place warm and cozy, till you get around
to moving your other foot?

Also, as long as you're reporting, you might want to give more details as 
to what touched off the rioting.  My understanding was that the blacks 
claimed that the Lubavitcher "Hatzala" ambulance came, took care of the
(Jewish) passengers of the car who were slightly injured and left the
two black kids (one dying, one critically injured) in the street.  The
Lubavitchers claim that the police told the ambulance to leave, and not
take the black kids (leaving them for the regular ambulance), so as 
not to add more fuel to the fire.  Still, they all seem to agree that the
ambulance left.  Any comments?

Sid

    If you are already speaking about Jacob and Esau, then the Midrach is
    giving 2 reasons for the fear of Jacob before his meeting with his
    brother: during the 20 years of the Jacob's exil, Esau had the
    opportunity to practise 2 Mitzvot: Kibud Av Vaem (respect of the
    parents) and Mitzvat Yishuv Eretz Israel: the obligation to live in
    Israel. But because Jacob was in exil, he was enable to practise these
    two Mitzvot and  therefore he was afraid that Esau merit was greater
    than his own one.
    
    Someone also mentionned the book "Em Habanim Smeha": the author was
    known as one of the more extremist anti-zionist rabbi before the war
    and the book was written in Budapest in the last months of the war when
    the author realised that he was wrong about his position against the
    Alyah and the jewish settlement in Eretz Israel. finally he was
    deported too to Auschwitz.
    
    As Juan already said, maybe the real answer is to accomplish the
    Mitzvat Yishouv Baaretz (living in Israel) so we will not have to be
    afraid that maybe the merit of Esau is more than ours...
    
    Haim

Someone on Usenet posted the following articles on the
Crown Heights Pogrom. I will IY"H update the facts as
I learn them.
    
    
    Jem
    
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA Times, Wednesday, August 21, 1991.
VIOLENCE FLARES FOR 2ND NIGHT IN N.Y.
Race:  Fifteen arrested as hundreds of policeman try to keep Jews,
blacks apart.  Trouble starts when car kills youth and Hasidic student
is stabbed to death in retaliation.
(from Associated Press)

New York - Violence flared Tuesday night between residents and police
officers in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, one day after a fatal
car accident spawned retaliatory violence that left one man dead.
    Fifteen police officers were injured when youths hurled bottles and
rocks at lines of police in riot gear, Deputy Police Commissioner Suzanne
Trazoff said.  Three police vehicles were damaged, including one set
afire, she said.
    Two stores were looted and one was set ablaze, she said.
    At least 15 arrests were made and hundreds of policemen were on the
scene seeking to separate Jews and blacks, city spokesman Andrew McInnis
said.
    There was no immediate word of civilian injuries.
    Melees the night before left 14 officers injured, 10 people arrested
and a police car torched.
    The violence was spawned by the death of a young black youth, who was
killed Monday night by a car driven by a Hasidic Jew.  In apparent
retaliation, a Hasidic student from Australia was stabbed to death.
    The renewed violence Tuesday occurred just after a group of black
leaders walked out of a meeting with police executives and officials from 
Brooklyn Dist. Atty. Charles J. Hynes' office, chanting, "No justice,
no peace!"
    The officials refused to act on the group's demand that the driver
of a car involved in the fatal accident be arrested, Trazoff said.
    The black leaders and about 200 followers walked through rain to
the scene of the accident after leaving the station house, police said.
    Violence flared as stones and debris were thrown at police officers.
At one point, policemen had to separate groups of Hasidic Jews and blacks.
    Earlier Tuesday, Mayor David N. Dinkins, in an appeal for calm and
at a briefing for reporters at City Hall, said, "We've had tragedy....
We need to assess what has happened to see to it that we don't repeat
these mistakes again, whatever mistakes may have been made."
    The chain of event began Monday evening as an unmarked police car
was escorting two cars containing, among others, 89-year-old Grand
Rabbi Menachen Schneerson, the leader of the Lubavitch sect, a worldwide
Hasidic group.
    It was not clear if the last car was speeding to get through a
changing light or had run a red light when it collided with another car
and mounted the sidewalk, striking two black children, Police
Commissioner Lee Brown said.
    The station wagon, driven by Yoseph Lisef, 22, whose address was
withheld by police, struck and killed Gavin Cato and seriously injured
his cousin, 7-year-old Angela Cato, both of Brooklyn, Trazoff said.
    Angry onlookers gathered around Lisef and his two passengers,
brothers Levi and Yakov Spielman, and begin attacking the three men as
an ambulance from the city's Emvergency Medical Service and a private
Hasidic-run community ambulance arrived.
    Police officers at the scene ordered the private ambulance to
remove the driver and two passengers "in the interests of preserving
the peace," Brown said.  The three Hasidic men were treated at
Methodist Hospital and released.
    "The city ambulance took care of the two young children that were
hurt", Brown said.
    As descriptions of the accident swept through the crowd, a rumor
began that the three Hasidic men had received medical treatment before
the two black children.
    As the rumor swept the community, police officers in riot gear
were called in to control the crowds, which began throwing stones and
bottles.
    Black youths, in groups ranging from 25 to 40, began rampaging
through Crown Heights, Brown said.  Shortly therafter, a Hasidic student
from Australia, Yankel Rosenbaum, 29, was fatally stabbed.  Rosenbaum
was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he later died.
    Two men were arrested in the stabbing, police said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA Times, Thurday, August 22, 1991.
(Picture of crowd of dozens of Jews with coffin carried above them, caption
says "The coffin of Yankel Rosenbaum, slain after a Jewish driver killed a
black child, is carried through Brooklyn.")
61 HURT IN ANTI-JEWISH VIOLENCE LINKED TO TRAFFIC DEATH OF BLACK
BROOKLYN CHILD
Race:  Eight policemen hit by shotgun blast.  Protesters burn cars in
outrage over refusal to arrest Hasidic driver.  Bottles thrown at mayor.
(By David Treadwell and John J. Goldman, Times Staff Writers)

New York - Violence erupted in Brooklyn's racially troubled Crown
Heights neighborhood Wednesday for the third straight day as blacks
continued their protests against police handling of a car accident
in which a black child was killed by a Hasidic Jewish driver.
    Police said that 61 people, including 43 police officers, were
injured.  Eight of the policemen were struck by a shotgun blast fired
from a roof.  They were reported in good condition.
    Late in the evening, Mayor David N. Dinkins visted the injured
officers at the hospital.
    "Under no circumstances am I going to tolerate lawlessness and
violence," said the mayor, who was the target of two bottles thrown by
demonstrators when he visited the neighborhood earlier.  The bottles
glanced off the mayor's car, causing security officers to cancel a
walking tour the mayor had planned.
    Scores of blacks hurled stones and bottles and burned several cars
as Dinkins and Police Commissioner Lee P. Brown met Wednesday with
elected officials and neighborhood youths to seek ways to end the
confrontations.
    "No justice, no peace," the black protesters chanted as the meeting
in a local school broke up.
    Dinkins, using a bullhorn, sought to calm the crowd, but to no avail.
About 2000 policemen struggled to restore order against roving bands
of protesters, some of whom at one point pulled the driver from a
taxi and torched the cab.
    "I am determined we are going to restore peace to the city," Dinkins
said.
    Black demonstrators said that they are angry that the driver who
killed the black child has not been arrested.  They saw it as a another
sign of what they call the preferential treatment police give the
Hasidic community in the predominantly African-American and black West
Indian section of Brooklyn.
    "If it had been a black driver who killed a Hasidic kid, the police
would have busted him upside his head and had him in jail by now,"
one black protester said.
    A grand jury was investigating Monday night's accident to determine
whether to charge the driver, sect member Yoseph Lisef, 22, Brooklyn
Dist. Atty. Charles J. Hynes said.
    Earlier Wednesday, another crowd of blacks, some wielding baseball
bats, marched on the world headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Hasidic
Lubavitcher sect and threw stones and bottles at police and Jews
protecting the building.
    An Israeli flag was burned as the black demonstrators shouted anti-
Semitic epithets.
    The black protesters carried home-made cardboard signs with slogans
such as "Hitler didn't do his job" and "We want justice now!  This is
not Palestine or Soweto."
    Police officers in riot gear separated the blacks and Jews, but
scores of blacks broke away and went on a rampage through a Jewish
section of the neighborhood.
    An elderly Hasidic rabbi, whom a Jewish store owner identified as
a resident of the neighborhood, was attacked and beaten.  Jews who
claimed to be eyewitnesses said the rabbi had been set on by a band
of about 10 to 15 black youths.
    "This is unbelievable," said Isaac Gurevitch, 25, a travel agent
who has lived in the Crown Heights section for six years.  "There is
no word I can say to describe it.  This is worse than animals."
    City Councilman Noach Dear, who was pelted with stones during the
melee outside the Lubavitcher sect's headquarters, said:  "This is
Nazi Germany all over again."
    The racial animosity in Crown Heights, which both black and white
residents say has been festering all summer, has created another
crucial challenge to Dinkins' leadership of this racially divided city.
    Dinkins, who in 1989 was elected as the city's first black mayor,
ran on a campaign that stressed unity and harmony among the city's
ethnically diverse population, which he refers to as a "gorgeous
mosaic."
    The violence first flared Monday night after 7-year-old Gabin Cato
was killed and his cousin, Angela Cato, also 7, was injured when a car
went out of control at the intersection of Utica Avenue and President
Street.
    The car carried part of the entourage of the Lubavitcher sect's
spiritual leader, Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.  A police car was
escorting the motorcade.
    Later, in what authorities have described as a revenge slaying,
a 29-year-old Australian Jew was fatally stabbed.  He was identified
as Yankel Rosenbaum, who friends said came to New York several weeks
ago to do research on the Holocaust, which his father survived.
    "[Rosenbaum], unfortunately, did not survive the streets of the
city of New York," said Rabbi Shmuel Butman, a spokesman for the
Crown Heights Jewish Community Council.
    Lemrick Nelson, 16, was charged with murdering Rosenbaum.
    The violence Wednesday flared up only hours after a funeral service
was held for Rosenbaum.
    The continuing confrontations upset several black residents.
    "I'm just embarrassed.  This doesn't make sense," said Aasim
Muhammed, 45, who was dressed in colorful African garb and carried an
ornately carved walking stick.  "People don't want blood.  They just
want the man who killed that kid arrested.  We don't need this hate
now."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: .5

>    I am surprised that you, of all people, would end your .1 reply in the
>    manner you did - the last paragraph where you comment about rocks being
>    thrown at you in New Jersey (where I live, by the way) with no details
>    at all - location, circumstances, etc.
>    
>    That, to me, seems a little inflammatory itself.

I'm not sure what could be considered "inflammatory" about it.
The (boring) details are as follows: On Sunday, Aug. 25, I was
driving with another yarmulka-wearer in Passaic, N.J. at 4:11
P.M. We made a wrong turn and found ourselves in a very sleazy
section of town. We turned down a side-street, and had to proceed
slowly because the road was full of potholes. As we passed a group
of local teenagers, there were rocks thrown at the car. We didn't
stick around to listen to the epithets, so I don't know what they
were yelling, so the reason for the violence is subject to speculation.

>If the situation is "still going on", then please keep us informed.

They are very fast-moving, but I'll try. The Rep. (reptile) Sharpton and
Cato's lawyer, Moore, are now claiming that the driver was drunk
(so that he can be arrested for DWI), even though the police breathalizer
on the spot showed 000. Moore claims he has "secret evidence" that 
contradicts the police report, but will not reveal it until a special
prosecutor is named. Translation: another Tawana Brawly fraud in the
making. Sharpton and professional riot-inciter Sonny Carson were doing 
all they could to keep the flames alive, literally, calling Jews "a
bunch of diamond-merchants," and proclaiming how "proud" they were
about the rioting of blacks. The name of Yankel Rosenbaum HY"D has
never been heard from the lips of any of the bigots, needless to say.
His Excellency, Dinkins, after allowing the rabble to run rampant for
3 days (the Kishniev Pogrom was over in one day), will not say a word
condemning the inciters. Meanwhile, King Cuomo seems never to have 
heard of Brooklyn. There's an awful lot more, but I don't have the
time. I request help from others who have access to the news.

>I don't mean to join the knee-jerk reactions of those who live here
>and say "Aha! I knew it would happen eventually -- Israel is the only
>place for a Jew to live".

You're entitled to say what you wish, and it's certainly most appropriate.
Those who live in Israel have the right to say "I told ya so" once in a 
while. It is our future, and I'd rather be reminded of that fact by Jews
than rioting mobs.

>  Still, I'm surprised that you of all people
>would quote something like "[living] with one foot in his ancestral
>homeland, ...ready at a moment's notice to return there."  What is this
>business of half-measures? 

Jacob had legitimate reasons for leaving the land, and for staying away
for the time that he did. Still, he always strove to return, and lived his
life with that goal in mind, constantly reexamining the situation.

> Do you think it's reasonable to expect some
>Jews to stay here and keep the place warm and cozy, till you get around
>to moving your other foot?

I understand your emotions. I even understand the underlying anger and
smugness. I don't think personal attacks are called for, however.

> The
>Lubavitchers claim that the police told the ambulance to leave, and not
>take the black kids (leaving them for the regular ambulance), so as 
>not to add more fuel to the fire. 

See the articles posted. This is the police version also. The Jewish
driver was pulled from the car, and was being beaten when the Hatzala
ambulance arrived. The ambulance was ordered to leave since the EMS
ambulance was taking care of the children. The ambulance got out in the 
nick of time, since a large mob was forming, and the vehicle would
have at least been prevented from moving, if not torched.

A New York Post reporter researched all the fatal accidents in NYC
in the past year, and found 21 such cases, none of which involved
arrests. Last year, in Crown Heights, a 5-year-old Jewish
boy was killed by a black driver. No arrest, no riot, no demands
for "justice." It was an accident, a tragic accident, just as this was.

The accident was, as I said, a flimsy pretext for the ensuing pogrom.

Re: .7

>    Someone also mentionned the book "Em Habanim Smeha": the author was
>    known as one of the more extremist anti-zionist rabbi before the war

Rabbi Teichtel was a gadol (great man) in every sense of the word. Although
he did publish a responsum against _aliya_ in _sefer_Tikkun_Olam_ before
the war, he was big enough to admit that he really had never researched the
topic fully and that he was dead wrong. As Rav Dimi said (Sab. 63b), "all
that I have told you was a mistake."

>    As Juan already said, maybe the real answer is to accomplish the
>    Mitzvat Yishouv Haaretz (living in Israel)

Yehi ratzon shenizkeh kulanu lekach bemehaira mamash.

Jem

Re: .3

I re-read my reply .3.

It is relatively easy to stand here, point my finger and say I told you...

May be it is not fair.

First of all, you Jem are right: J'accuse: I accuse and condemn the
indiscriminate violence against our people. The violence against the Jews 
was an easy way to let the steam out. For most of the history.

The fact that there are situations that create the feeling of repression,
of un-justice, of un-fairness, among coloured people cannot be construed
as an explanation (I wouldn't dear to say justification) for the violence
against the Jews.

My heart bleeds for my brethen pogromed in the land of the free. My heart
bleeds for my coloured brothers that are not fairly treated. It is a shame 
that we may be attacked by those that know what the hate to the different
one causes. We are -and should be- in the same side of the struggle.

It seems that, as long as there is no a real kingdom of Justice, it will
not be easy for Jacob to rest.

Perhaps in his own corner, where he is no minority, he may have a better
chance. Even if he is here and sometimes feels with one leg on the other side.

Lets condemn violence. Lets condemn discrimination. Lets look for a place 
to rest.

Regards,

Juan-Carlos

P.D.: Jem, welcome back to civilian life.
      So, how were your "Miluim"? JCK