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Anti-Police Policies and Antisemitism That Fueled Riots 30 Years Ago Are on the Rise Again
by Alana Goodman
August 19, 2021

Thirty years ago, antisemitic mobs plundered the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn for three days, chanting Nazi slogans, destroying Jewish homes and businesses, and lynching a young Jewish seminary student. On the night of Aug. 19, 1991, a 22-year-old Orthodox Jewish man named Yosef Lifsh lost control of his car and skidded onto the sidewalk, killing a seven-year-old black boy named Gavin Cato and injuring his seven-year-old cousin. Rumors quickly spread that Lifsh had been intoxicated and that a private Jewish community ambulance service had treated Lifsh while refusing to treat the injured children—claims that were later determined to be false. The neighborhood, which was majority black with a growing Orthodox Jewish minority, erupted in violence. READ MORE