A Black clergyman in the racially-mixed Crown Heights section of Brooklyn reported that an agreement had been reached with leaders of the Lubavitcher movement to end a dispute over police barricades limiting access to a service road which passes the United Lubavitcher Synagogue.
The area was the scene of a clash between several hundred Hasidim and police on June 2 which erupted when patrolmen tried to arrest three Hasidic youth charged with battering two cars driven on the block during a restricted period. One was driven by Dr. Rufus Nichols, a Black physician who lives on the block, and the other by a patient. The Hasidim charged the cars were driven “recklessly.”
The Black clergyman. Rev. Clarence Norman, said Friday that “we have received assurances from Jewish leaders that no traffic will be interfered with in traveling through this area.” Rev. Norman, who is president of the interracial and interfaith Crown Heights Clergy Council, urged that drivers “bear in mind the safety of those children and adults entering and leaving services” at the Lubavitcher Synagogue.
This was a reference to a claim by a Lubavitcher spokesman, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, that the barricades, used during the past three years, were meant only to protect worshippers, particularly children, who congregate outside the synagogue on Saturdays. He said last week that four of the children had been hit by cars during the past year.
Rev. Norman also urged both communities “to respect the rights of one another and not to be goaded into confrontation which would only serve the interests of those who would tear our community apart.” Dr. Nichols’ wife had demanded immediate removal by police of the barricades, and Rabbi Krinsky had charged that the Blacks were “trying to prod us into a confrontation.” Rev. Robert L. Hardmond, another Black member of the Clergy Council, urged religious and lay leaders of the two communities to unit behind efforts of the Clergy Council to depolarize the Crown Heights section. Calling the June 2 clash a “shocking incident,” Rev. Hardmond said the problems which the Black community “have long experienced are also the problems of other ethnic groups,” including Jews, Haitians and Hispanic Americans.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
