Monday, November 27, 2006

Insanity in Crown Heights, Brooklyn

I found this link via Kesher Talk. It seems that ultra-ultra religious Jews, in a group known as the 'Bochurim,' who are students from the Tzefas yeshiva, vandalized a synogogue in Crown Heights. It is not yet clear what their beef was with the rabbi who ran the synogogue or what their motives were, but it was an intra-Jewish rivalry. THIS IS TOTAL INSANITY. Jews are such a tiny population in the world, and to engage in this form of self destruction is outrageous and pitiful. To engage in it in Crown Heights, home of the famed riots in 1991, is especially sad. More about the 1991 riots here and here. I remember the Crown Heights riots in 1991. I was a young girl at the time, and it made a very indelible impression. It was my first exposure to localized antisemitism. To see Jew on Jew violence at this location is just especially tragic. UPDATE: More on this incident, courtesy of Mental Blog. UPDATE: More on this incident, coutrey of Shturem.net - seems it was the Bochorim (whoever they are), that were responsible. They seem to be ultra ultra religious Jews from Israel, on a visa. There is now a call to pull the visas from these people.

1 comment:

Thomas Forsyth said...

Such acts are inexcusable, regardless of who did it, but it is especially tragic that very religious Jews would commit such vandalism, though sometimes in-fighting has the worst attacks.

I am reminded of an event David told me about in his synagouge in Swan Lake, where some people form an Orthdoox synagouge stole the Torah and replaced it with their own, which had become pasule. Such an act was not only dirty, and unacceptable, but was grand theft, so the state troopers were involved and luckily the Torah was recovered.

In a time when anti-semitism gains a resurgence, the last thing that is needed is for Jewish groups to carry out progroms against other Jewish groups, though even in the best of times, such acts are horrible and saddening.