The number of attacks against Jews in this country has risen sharply in recent years – especially in heavily Jewish neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Crown Heights. Some maintain that all these attacks are motivated anti-Semitism. I don’t believe that to be the case, and as a black Orthodox Jew who lives in Williamsburg (I converted in 20__), I think I possess a measure of credibility to speak on this topic that others do not have.
If you speak to blacks and Hispanics about their Orthodox Jewish neighbors as I have, you will hear strong emotions. Hate, however, won’t be one of them. Instead, you’ll likely hear resentment and anger. To understand why, let me relate a personal experience.
One day I was walking in Williamsburg when I was approached by a black individual who was understandably amazed to see me: a black man who was also very visibly Jewish. “Do they accept you?” he asked me. “Of course,” I replied – to which he said, “I thought Jews were racist.”
I asked him why he thought that. He replied that the Jews at his work place never talk to him (keep in mind that blacks have a complex about being hated because of their treatment in this country before the civil rights era). I explained to him that the Jews he works with are frum Jews who generally don’t talk to anyone outside their community.
“It has nothing to do with you being black,” I told him. I assured him they would likely behave the same way if he were white. “They’re not judging you,” I said, “they’re just being true to their customs.”
As I spoke to him, I could see his face visibly soften. He understood.
Let me share another story. One Shabbos I pushed an elderly person home from shul in a wheelchair in a neighborhood that has an eruv. When we arrived at the lobby of his building, he asked a group of nearby black maintenance and security personnel to push the button of the elevator for him (since he couldn’t walk up the stairs).
One of them ultimately did step forward to push the button, but everyone in the group was very annoyed and showed it. Mystified by their behavior, I took the stairs back to the first floor after I brought the gentlemen to his apartment and approached the group. “This building is almost entirely Jewish,” I said. “You must get requests to push buttons and turn on lights all the time. Why were you so annoyed?”
One of them replied, “You don’t understand. We say hello to these folks every day, and they just walk past us as if we don’t exist, as if they are better than us. Then, all of a sudden, on Saturday, as soon as they have an emergency, they run to us to help them.”
I believe this attitude lies behind is more pervasive than we would care to admit – and we are not blameless. Of course, such resentment doesn’t justify violence – which is wrong, period – and we as Jews are taught that we will be afflicted in galus no matter what we do (history teaches us that compromising in an effort to be liked does not work).
Having said that, I am fairly certain that at least 95 percent of blacks and Hispanics in neighborhoods like Crown Heights and Williamsburg where I have lived for a long time are not anti-Semitic. If some of these people are angry at Jews, it’s because they misunderstand our customs or behavior.
We are constantly doing good and constantly being charitable. Our “strange” customs and laws, however, sometimes need to be explained to others. Non-Jew can misunderstand our intentions, and we should be aware of that. So while we can never satisfy the true anti-Semite, the attitude of most of our neighbors toward us is often entirely in our hands.