Fires In The Mirror

The interview takes place on the morning of November 12, 1991, in a large Crown Heights home. Children stare at Smith. The rabbi says that the neighborhood had a lot of people on the street, drinking and playing, it being “that type of neighborhood” (67). He says the Hasidic driver tried to steer away from the people and hit a building, regrettably killing a child and wounding another. He jumped out of the car to help the children, and black people started beating him and the other passengers, so much so that he needed stiches. A passenger called 911, and a black person stole his phone. A Jewish volunteer ambulance—not funded by the government—came to the scene where the police already were. They didn’t have the equipment to care for Gavin, and they left behind one passenger, who called the rabbi to pick him up. A crowd had gathered and there were a lot of people. The police told the rabbi to get his people out of there.

A few hours later, the oblivious Rosenbaum was walking down the street, “and he was accosted by a group of young Blacks / about twenty of them strong” (70), one of whom was yelling “‘Kill all Jews”’ (71), among other racial epithets.