24 Comments

• Wondering

  Huh?
  Now,what exactly is the point here?
  We are trying to make sure that the 7 and 8 graders in Lubavitch Yeshiva don’t join a gang???!!!

  Or is a cynical use of young bochurim to impress the ‘world’ about how ‘open minded’ we are….?

• ???

  Interesting how the audience sat separately.

• Mendel

  Beautiful! This program should have started years ago. Thanks to NYPD and Rabbi Simpson for cooperating.
  All the yeshivot should be doing this ASAP. It should also be a mandatory ongoing program, every year for every boy and girl from the Jewish and public schools.

• c-mon ppl now - smile at your brother

  is this what we want? our teens should be encouraged to MINGLE! in the olden days – like when Rabbi Simpson was young – you could talk to youth about mingling and there was no way it would happen. things have changed. our neighbors are better educated and smoother than they were. mingling to make it look like we are good citizens may lead to mingling for earnest. (btw -it is already happening.) c’mon people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together try to love one another right now!

• would like to know

  can someone who attended please comment on how you felt about the event.
  thanks

• Shochen Tov

  b’h

  Please stop perpetuating the canard that there are racial tensions. The relationships on my block on Eastern Parkway are exemplary. My non-Jewish neighbors are also frustrated and outraged by criminal acts, and they go out of their way to tell me so. The real tension is between the criminals and lack of police presence, not among our ‘one community’ as the Rebbe MH’M once described it to a non-Jewish politician.

  Please don’t copy the goyishe press who like to see everything in Crown Heights in shades of black and white.

• Sara

  Not too many black kids.
  It should have been mandatory for all (boys)schools.

• Yirmy

  Good start, however in my opinion it is the older boys who create the trouble. But it is good to start education on this matter.
  I applaud Rabbi Simpson for having an open mind and have LY take part of this exercise. It shows his leadership and that he takes the education of our children seriously.

• Anonim

  What was the point of this? Are any of our kids in danger of joining gangs? This is a total waste of time and is just a way tha cops get away with pretending they are doing something.

• CHer

  notice how CHI put brackets around the raicial tensions, as if making fun of anyone calling it that. that’s how it seems to me.

  in every report on this site our problem in crown heights was emphasized that it wasn’t racial tensions rather the problem being that it is unsolved crime which is the problem.

  while this program is loaded with good intentions, it can facilitate the end of many stigmas concerning the way black teens see jewish teens, which is as human beings and that we are people too.

  i feel that this is a good step in the right direction, and it should be done more and with more of the youth.

• olden days

  t “c’mon pple now…”

  thanks for the reminder of a long forgotten song. I confess to a little singing here:)

• 38 YR RESIDENT OF THE HOOD

  TO SHOCEN TOV: it was to the x mayor dinkins who the Rebba said it to “one comunity ”

• OP-ED

  wow. all those who oppose this what do u want the police to do? it seems they can never do anything right! if u have any suggestions go for it. if this is the way it has to be done our only job is to educate our children in the right ways and hope they will be a positive influence on the rest of the world. perhaps at more of these programs the seven noahide laws can be discussed.

• Why yayin nesach and bishul akum is asur

  This is a total waste of time, Bitul
  torah, something that yiddishe kinder have no bussiness wasting time on. We don’t have to mix with them to be who we are. We are aloud to be free yidden in a free country with out C”v Mishen zich mit goyim. As it says ‘vayisorvue bagoyim vayilmidue memaasayhem’ We don’t bother them and let the police make sure they don’t bother us. Solve all the crimes that are happening through them and leave us alone.

• Knowledge gives power

  The word “gang” may not seem so applicable in the Jewish community, but the education of it is important. It’s not just about gangs, it’s about peer pressure as well. Also, even if they aren’t directly involved… living in Brooklyn they’re exposed to it. There are shoot outs in the subways stations.

  Plus in terms of peer pressure— this is a start to Yeshiva’s taking a stand against something that is of more importance but has for the most part been ignored. Drug use/ drug education. Yes we don’t want to admit it, but there ARE drug users in the Yeshiva systems. Not always in the obviously ‘troubled’ children either. Kids may see their friends experimenting during their teenage years. You like to think it isn’t happening but you’d be surprised how much it actually is.

  I heard a sad story once from a boy who’d gone to Oheli Torah… he didn’t know the difference between pot and heroin— he thought it was pot you got addicted to and heroin you didn’t. So until he learned better… he used heroin and avoided marijuana. Yes, this is a extreme example… but even less extreme is the amount of alcohol boys have access to without really knowing about or understanding the harm that can come from excessive drinking.

  Yes you don’t want to educate children on things that they ‘shouldn’t’ be exposed to anyways… but they DO get exposed and it’s important that they know safety behind that, and the harm it does.

  Learning about gangs is a start. Children gain empowerment to make right decisions only through knowledge. Knowing is what will enable them to say no! Technology opens up a broader world. It’s important to educate to a certain degree in order to protect. There’s a risk that they’ll be exposed to it… so wouldn’t it be better for YOU to have control?

• shmuli

  im sorry i strongly disagree with all those who oppose this event. i think it was a beautiful kiddush hashem, and i think we should be grateful for the effort on behalf of the police.

  it hurts me to see people upset and angry at the police dept. as a whole, when i see patrolmen posted on corners all by themselves until 3AM, only there to protect us by orders of the NYPD! how many of you would do that for $35,000/yr ?! (dont forget the dangers they face!).

  you may not realize this, but a very small amount of kindness and gratitude will get you alot better police protection than complaints and moans!!!!!

• Shmuel S.

  I welcome the day when Jewish yungerliet wipe the word “schwartze” from their vocabularies. Maybe this program will help make Jewish kids understand things their teachers and parents can’t or don’t know how to do.

  NYPD PO John Evola is a terrific cop. He has a lot to teach. People who write in to this website with criticism of NYPD and these programs are too narrow minded to understand what it takes to live in pluralistic society.

• CH

  Thank you Shmuli for your wise words. Indeed, we have no right to show ingratitude to the police officers who have been posted to our neighborhood to protect us.

• yitz

  How about Oholei Tora also joining community events.Are they not part of the community?

• no name

  i think they should do this for girls too!!!

• wertf

  Having the kids site separately defeats the purposes, namely, to have the kids interact with each other.

• Crown Heights Resident

  It’s great to know that people are making the effort top educate the youth of the community.

  Hell, it’s a start.

  One more thing however. This is something unrelated to the actual article.

  I just find it interesting that a website under the url “crownheights.info” largely represents the sentiments and ideas of a small segment of our community. I mean, anyone can access this site and much of the news are of concern of everyone within crown heights, but most (if not all) of the articles posted on here are by Lubavitcher Hasidic Jews.

  Now, there definitely NOT a problem for a segment of the community to have their own voice. Actually, I applaud such an effort. However, how can this site truly represent the community of crown heights when the ones who exclusively post and run the site represent less than 10% of the communities residents? The vast majority of the residents in crown heights are African-American. Shouldn’t some of their voices and opinions (among others)be posted in the forum of articles on this site along well? I mean, there is even a disclaimer here that says that this site isn’t an official Chabad-Lubavitch website, as if the opinions on the site reflect on that section of the community.

  Again, I am not saying anything negative about this site. I’m merely throwing an idea out there to see what some of neighbors think.

• reader

  The police should also teach the students how to defend themselves and what to do in an emergency, chas v’Shalom.

• steven jordan

  I no longer live in Crown Heights Brooklyn but I do stay in touch with friends and family. So much has change over the years most for the good of man kine. I am proud to say that I went to school in the Heights. Keep up the good work Brooklyn.