RELATIONS BETWEEN THE JEWISH AND CARIBBEAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES IN NEW YORK CITY: PERCEPTIONS, CONFLICT AND COOPERATION

Abstract

This study explores the history of conflict and future options for cooperation between two distinct ethnic groups in New York City, Caribbean-Americans and Jews. The argues, however, that relations between both groups cannot be read through the crude lens of “Black/Jewish relations.” The article is divided in two major parts. In the first part, the authors explore the historical trajectory of relations between the two groups largely by focusing on the Crown Heights district in Brooklyn, home to a variety of Caribbean nationals, and the Jewish Lubavitcher Hasidic community. As the survey of historical material will reveal, in the late 1960s/early 1970s, issues pertaining to contestation over space and resources increasingly affected relations between both groups. A low point was reached in 1991 with the “Crown Heights unrest,” which threw this part of Brooklyn into several days of openly violent conflict. Although – as Part II will demonstrate – issues such as crime, cultural peculiarities, access to resources and political influence, remain on the agenda, both groups have since managed to restore less conflict-prone and productive relationships. Although conflicts have been often couched in terms of these relations, additional cultural factors suggest that the conflict has been shaped by other dynamics.

Citation

Henke, H. and Irish, J.A.G. (2004), "RELATIONS BETWEEN THE JEWISH AND CARIBBEAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES IN NEW YORK CITY: PERCEPTIONS, CONFLICT AND COOPERATION", Krase, J. and Hutchison, R. (Ed.) Race and Ethnicity in New York City (Research in Urban Sociology, Vol. 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 193-220. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1047-0042(04)07009-6