Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Crown Heights Jews Defending Themselves Against Hooligans

1914 • 100 years ago

From Pogroms to Ellis Island

As many readers already know, 800 Jewish families were expelled from Kiev about five weeks ago. The first of these unhappy immigrants landed recently on Ellis Island. An immigration official presented one of them, a cantor by the name of Eliyahu Teller, to reporters as an example of how Jews are treated in Russia. “Since the Beilis Blood Libel trial,” Teller explained, “the Jews of Kiev have suffered numerous, terrible attacks. Our lives were made so difficult that it was clear we were being forced out. It was an open secret that many Kiev Jews were permitted to live there because their children were in Russian schools, but after Beilis they began arresting Jews and putting them in jail with common criminals. Permission to live in the city was simply taken away. We had no choice but to leave.”

1939 • 75 years ago

** World’s Fair Brings Jews Together**

“Only our people, a people that has carried thousands of years of terrible history, can build a pavilion that exhibits a quiet refinement,” physicist Albert Einstein said at the opening of the Palestine Pavilion at the World’s Fair in Queens. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia added, “No people has given the world so much and received so little.” A huge crowd was in attendance — hundreds of thousands of them, young and old. According to official figures provided by the organizers of the fair, at least 300,000 visited the pavilion, only half of them Jewish. Many speeches were given, mostly about how important Palestine is for the Jews of today. There was a mass oath-taking by many in attendance, the traditional oath of “If I forget thee, Oh Jerusalem, let my right hand wither.” The hundreds of thousands of Jews swore their allegiance to a Jewish homeland.

1964 • 50 years ago

Brooklyn Jews Protect Themselves

A Jewish defense organization in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, has announced that it will continue to protect local Jews from the hooligans that are attacking them and, as long as the New York City Police will not protect the residents, the organization will step in and do so with frequent patrols. Supported by a number of rabbis and yeshiva principals, the organization has also received support from a number of Christian clergy, among them, the Rev. Griswold, a black preacher. However, there was backlash against the group, notably from a Crown Heights reverend, William Jones, who claimed that the organization accused all black residents of Crown Heights of being anti-Semites.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.