More than 100 members of the Crown Heights Hasidic community took to Eastern Parkway in a Black Lives Matter march, almost 30 years after racial tensions between the black and Jewish communities caused riots and destruction in the neighborhood.
Wearing traditional clothing with strollers in tow, members of the Chabad community marched from Kingston Ave to Franklin Ave carrying homemade signs in an act of solidarity with their black neighbors. The march was organized through a WhatsApp chat started for politically progressive Jews, many of whom had wanted to attend bigger protests organized following the death of Black man George Floyd at the hands of police, but had been nervous, an organizer told Business Insider.
Maayan Zik told Business Insider it was an attempt to make sense of this political crisis, "How would you respond to family members who talk about touchy subjects in real life and on social media?"
Zik said the aim of the march was to show solidarity with the black community, amplify black voices and create an awareness amongst the Jewish community about racism.
Lifelong Crown Heights resident Felicia Gomes told the Forward she hoped the march, "was the beginning that will actually change what people feel in this community."
