The citizens radio car patrol organized by Hassidic Jews in the crime-ridden Crown Heights section of Brooklyn is being expanded into an interfaith, interracial project, Rabbi Samuel Schrage, one of the organizers, said today.
The reorganization was decided on after a closed meeting of Protestant, Catholic and Jewish leaders with civil and political officials, attending. The first change will be in the name of the patrol. Called the Maccabees since its formation two weeks ago, it is now the “Citizens Community Patrol.”
Rabbi Schrage and eight other Hassidic rabbis attended the closed meeting. The 40 Brooklyn community leaders present included Bishop F.D. Washington, a Negro, who volunteered to take charge of the patrol’s operations during the coming Sabbath, A ten-member steering committee was named at the meeting to direct the reorganization. The steering committee was instructed to get more radio-equipped patrol cars. The Maccabees have been operating five cars, manned by unarmed Hassidic Jews, obtained through donations.
Rabbi Bemjamim Kreitman, a Maccabee official and rabbi of the Brooklyn Jewish Center who was chairman at the meeting, said that the reorganization demonstrated that the patrol “can in no way be called a vigilante group nor may it be said we are directing our activity toward any particular ethnic group.” Negro groups had made such charges.
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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.
