“Get the Jew”: The Crown Heights Riot Revisited

On the evening of August 19, 1991, in Crown Heights, New York, Yosef Lifsh ran a red light and crashed his car. A seven-year-old Guyanese immigrant, Gavin Cato, was killed instantly, while his sister was severely injured. What followed was the worst anti-Semitic riot in history.

For almost three days, rioters attacked local Jews and destroyed Jewish homes, businesses, and institutions while police stood down. One Jew, Yankel Rosenbaum, was murdered by a group of men chanting “get the Jew!”

The riot was a touchstone moment in the history of Black-Jewish relations, anti-Semitism in America, and American race relations more broadly.