Friday, October 12, 2007
Plea in Lakewood: 'We've all got to calm down'
Lakewood is on edge again.
An Orthodox rabbi lies in an intensive care unit, three days after being severely beaten about the head as he walked to synagogue. Police say his assailant, who wielded an aluminum bat in a surprise attack and then fled, is African-American.
For everyone in Lakewood, an uncomfortable melting pot in Ocean County of Orthodox Jews, blacks and Hispanics, the beating of Rabbi Mordechai Moskowitz is terrible news for more than one reason. They are still recovering from the tensions stoked in 2006 when a group of Orthodox men accosted an African-American teenager. The only man charged in the case was found not guilty of assault this summer.
Some say they are fearful Tuesday's attack might lead Orthodox Jews to retaliate.
"We've all got to calm down. There is a very delicate balance in town, and we are all praying that this incident doesn't escalate," Mayor Ray Coles said yesterday, one day after community leaders called an emergency meeting to share information. "We have to make this work."
Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg, a prominent voice within the Orthodox community, sounded just as somber.
"It would be a very bad outcome if people felt this was one community pitted against another, which it is certainly not," he said. "Everybody feels violated, no matter what community you come from."
James Waters, a Lakewood resident on the state board of the NAACP, agreed that when "something happens to one of us, it happens to all of us."
However, he urged residents to "blame the bad guy, not anyone else.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1192164596306510.xml&coll=1
Lakewood is on edge again.
An Orthodox rabbi lies in an intensive care unit, three days after being severely beaten about the head as he walked to synagogue. Police say his assailant, who wielded an aluminum bat in a surprise attack and then fled, is African-American.
For everyone in Lakewood, an uncomfortable melting pot in Ocean County of Orthodox Jews, blacks and Hispanics, the beating of Rabbi Mordechai Moskowitz is terrible news for more than one reason. They are still recovering from the tensions stoked in 2006 when a group of Orthodox men accosted an African-American teenager. The only man charged in the case was found not guilty of assault this summer.
Some say they are fearful Tuesday's attack might lead Orthodox Jews to retaliate.
"We've all got to calm down. There is a very delicate balance in town, and we are all praying that this incident doesn't escalate," Mayor Ray Coles said yesterday, one day after community leaders called an emergency meeting to share information. "We have to make this work."
Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg, a prominent voice within the Orthodox community, sounded just as somber.
"It would be a very bad outcome if people felt this was one community pitted against another, which it is certainly not," he said. "Everybody feels violated, no matter what community you come from."
James Waters, a Lakewood resident on the state board of the NAACP, agreed that when "something happens to one of us, it happens to all of us."
However, he urged residents to "blame the bad guy, not anyone else.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1192164596306510.xml&coll=1
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