Fires in the Mirrors (2)

Rosyln Malamud, a Lubavitcher resident of Crown Heights really stood out to me among all the people being interviewed. She had a lot of insight on the relationship between the Jews and the African Americans living in Crown Heights. She pointed out the fact that both Jews and African Americans want the same thing out life, they want to be successful, send their kids to a good school. But the two minorities cannot get along because of their different religions and different foods. She as stated that no racial or religious groups want to kill a 7-year-old boy and kill the boy on purpose. The black community is forgetting that it was an accident because they are not thinking rationally. They are making rationally decisions (like killing an innocent Jewish bystander) because they are letting their anger take control.

The two groups are acting like typical humans in the fact that they want revenge. The black community wanted revenge on the Jewish man that killed the seven year old black boy. When they were not going to get it because the driver was going to be allowed to be free, they got their revenge by killing an innocent Jewish bystander. The bystander’s brother, Norman Rosenbaum, then wanted revenge on the black community for his brother’s death. The revenge he wanted was the man that was responsible for stabbing his brother to be locked up in jail. When that did not happen, he and the Jews did not resort to violence, but to protesting. That was the main difference between the two groups. The Jewish community did not resort to violence to get their revenge, while the black community did.

Both groups are determined to make the other group look like the bad guy. The two groups also think that the other group is better off and have more power in the community than they do. For example the black men thought the reason the Jewish man that killed the boy was not convicted of murder was because the Jews controlled the case and set the man free. The two groups will not be able to get along and solve their differences if they do not learn the others beliefs and traditions. Without learning about one another they will not have any respect for one another, which means they will not be able to get along.