Brooklyn Unites On 25th Anniversary Of Crown Heights Riots
On the 25th anniversary of the 1991 Crown Heights riots Sunday, Brooklynites gathered to commemorate the events that transpired more than two decades ago — when the community witnessed the deaths of a black child and a Jewish doctoral student, which spurred three consecutive days of mayhem marked by racial tensions.
On the night of Aug. 19, 1991, a Hasidic Jewish driver transporting a rabbi accidentally struck seven-year-old Gavin Cato while he was fixing his bike chain outside of his home. Emergency responders took Cato to Kings County Hospital where moments later he was pronounced dead. The news of his passing spiraled the riots, creating tensions between blacks and Jewish residents in the neighborhood.
The next day, a group of angry black teens cornered Yankel Rosenbaum — a Jewish doctoral student from Australia studying in the U.S. — and stabbed him to death for being Jewish.
“One Crown Heights” — the festival organized by Project CARE — to promote unity and diversity, brought local politicians, religious leaders, and the community together to look back at the riots while paying tribute to the victims. One notable absence was Norman Rosenbaum — Yankel’s brother, who slammed the festivities filled with rides as “insensitive” and “shameful,” because it’s an insult to the memory of Yankel.
Carmel Cato, Gavin’s father, attended the celebration and lit a candle to honor his son, but he chose not to address the crowd as he sported a shirt that read, “25 years Commemoration. Believe Peace.”
However, Cato told reporters after the event, he wished his friend Norman Rosenbaum had stood by his side. When asked if he agreed with Rosenbaum condemning the festivities, Cato said, “No.”
“I spoke with him (Rosenbaum) on this matter,” Cato said. “He’s his own person and has his own mind. What he wants to do is good with me. I have no problem.”
When asked what he wants Gavin’s legacy to be, Cato said, “Love.”
Crown Heights resident Richard Green and head of the Crown Heights Youth Initiative remembered the riots all too well.
Green recalled the riots on its first day walking from the 71st Precinct to the corner of Kingston Avenue and Eastern Parkway where he gathered youth from the Jewish and black communities to educate them on the violence plaguing their neighborhood.
But since the riots, trying to mend relations between both communities for 25 years has been a work in progress, according to Green. He acknowledged that one of his proudest moments was arranging for Rosenbaum and Cato to meet.
“One of the things that we’ve always been able to do was to bring them (Rosenbaum and Cato) together,” Green said, of both men separated by race and religion, but bounded by tragedy. “They had very similar issues. They lost a loved one.”
Another longtime Crown Heights resident — Devorah Halberstam — experienced the riots first hand as well.
“25 years ago I watched as my community was attacked by a mob chanting kill the Jews,” Halberstam said, a community activist who helped organized the event.
Halberstam empathized with the Rosenbaum family, whose son was shot and killed in a van full of Jewish students on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1994.
“These riots as they are now called, I realized then that they are deep and painful memories. After 25 years there needs to be validation of their suffering. There needs to finally be an acceptance of the truth,” Halberstam said.
Council Member Laurie Cumbo, who represents Fort Greene, Crown Heights, and Bedford Stuyvesant also made an appearance. She said although the community had endured pain for decades, it was crucial to come together as one.
“Brooklyn and New York City experienced a great loss we can never understand,” Cumbo said, who co-sponsored the festival. “But it’s important that we do not allow loss or tragedy to prevent us from working together. We have to reach out beyond our comfort zone every single day to get to know one another.”