El Diario-La Prensa, the leading Spanish language newspaper in New York, has expressed concern in an editorial over the recent clashes between Hispanics and religious Jews in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn and has announced it plans to “host a dialogue and purposeful exchange of ideas and opinions in order to heal the breach which currently exists between these two fine groups (Hispanics and Jews) who have so much to contribute to each other.”
Borough Park, an area of one of the largest communities of Orthodox Jews in the world, has recently been the scene of several firebombings of synagogues and Jewish schools. The violence has been blamed on Hispanic youths.
“The resort to firebombings, harassments, bully boy and mob tactics by extremists and hate-filled misfits as a means of settling disputes that exist between these two communities is nothing more than a flagrant and obvious attempt to polarize decent family-centered and law-abiding Hispanics and Hasidics into believing that their respective differences are irreconcilable,” the Nov. 30 editorial declared.
“It is ironic that these differences are, to a great extent, rooted in the common condition of insufficiency which is the plight of both groups: insufficient housing…jobs and equal opportunities; health care; insufficient understanding from the larger community of their value system, life styles, customs and cultures.” The newspaper urged both groups to cooperate by understanding each other and working together to obtain improved services for the entire community.
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