Race and Religion Among the Chosen People of Crown Heights

by Henry Goldschmidt

In the first major scholarly work to look beyond the sensationalized violence of August 1991, Henry Goldschmidt explores the everyday realities of Black-Jewish difference in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights. Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork, he argues that collective identities like Blackness and Jewishness are particularly complex in today's Crown Heights because the neighborhood's Afro-Caribbean, African American, and Lubavitch Hasidic communities understand their differences in dramatically different ways-as a racial divide between Blacks and Whites or a religious divide between Gentiles and Jews. Goldschmidt takes this collision of conceptual categories as an invitation to reimagine both "race" and "religion." By exploring the limits of categorical thought, he works to create space in American society for radical forms of cultural difference.

Henry Goldschmidt is the Education Program Associate at the Interfaith Center of New York, and formerly an Assistant Professor of Religion and Society at Wesleyan University.

Genres: Nonfiction, Read For School, Religion

296 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2006

Reviews

[Olivia Orr · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

Read this for my anthro class about judaism. it was a super interesting read about a very complex community, and I really enjoyed my time with it.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Brooklyn native's (UC Santa Cruz) dissertation, summed up as Lubavitcher Orthodox Jews tend to view their neighbors as they do the "rest" of Gentile society, mainly as religiously different, and the perspectives of Caribbean immigrants to NYC, and their African American predecessors, who in turn lean towards racial distinctions, makes sense. Like a lot of academic work, it's not that rarified (which can be a relief) or inherently profound. That is, it sets out its thesis, elaborates the outline, and ticks off the pro-forma methodologies. While he popularizes somewhat his style, it's scholarly.

When I see footnotes to sociologists credited for insights such as in laymen's terms, quotidian life is inherently complicated or experiences influence our interpretations of events, I can't help but roll my eyes. The author sets out his study clearly, on the other hand, and largely eschews the more egregious jargon of his profession; I bet if this was published now, nearly twenty years on, it'd be stuffed with buzzwords. Still, he gains respect from me for an objective, and fair-minded analysis.

Goldschmidt, as an observant and "identifiably Jewish" observer, starts with a telling incident he saw at a laundromat with the respective Jewish and black participants representing their "diverse" constituencies, without realizing it. I liked how he blended his own scenario to take us into the riot or pogrom or both of 1991, when a tragic auto accident in Crown Heights, where outside of the late Rebbe's entourage and congregants, "whites" had fled that part of the borough, inflamed violence, leading to an intentional murder after the unintentional death, when a car in the motorcade allotted Rabbi Schneerson and his companions sped through an intersection, and this neglect wound up killing a young girl. and injuring her brother, who'd come with their parents recently from Guyana.

The likes of Al Sharpton, claiming to stand on behalf of his followers, largely not newcomers but long settled in the area, then fired up the crowds and damage in the form of arson, looting, and the targeted death of an Australian Orthodox student on his own, apart from the mayhem, incited three days of what activists might label as an uprising, given the parallels supposedly to such as the L.A. conflagrations after Rodney King was beaten around the same time. Goldschmidt interviews those by name or anonymously who were there, and he maps out the varying perspectives as you'd expect. After I saw a Wall Street Journal short documentary by Elliot Kaufman in 2024 produced, about this incident, I searched for what seemed best non-sensational examination of this conflict.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great and insightful look at the broader picture and realities of the Crown Heights violence of 1991. Fascinating to read the differing perspectives of the Jewish and Black communities in how they view their neighborhood, cultural differences, and the 3-day upheaval. The book provides compelling arguments on how to challenge our go-to beliefs on diverse and complex cultures.

[Michaela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Goldschmidt’s book interesting as he blurred the lines between religion and race and encouraged people to step out of the conventional understandings of diversity that unknowingly limits what we are truly accepting of.

[Emily Feldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learned a lot! A bit academic but I appreciated the research and scholarly nature.

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relatable

[Marjorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good background on the conflict in Crown Heights

[Foxglove · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book for my research project, very useful, lots of great names and dates.