photo WJC
At a commemoration by the National Action Network in Harlem, New York, on the occasion of the Martin Luther King Day, the chairman of the World Jewish Congress American Section, Rabbi Marc Schneier, has elicited an unequivocal condemnation from the Rev. Al Sharpton against an attack by five African-American teenagers on a Jewish youth last week. In his remarks, Schneier said, “No segment of American society provided as much and as consistent support to Dr King and to the African-American community as did the Jewish community.”
He recalled the supreme sacrifice of two Jewish civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, who were murdered in the swamps of Mississippi. In reporting on the anti-Semitic incident in which five African-American teenagers attacked a 16-year-old yeshiva student, Samuel Balkany, with anti-Semitic slurs while kicking and beating him, Schneier called on Sharpton to condemn this anti-Semitic attack in the spirit of Martin Luther King, who understood that “a people who fight for their own rights are only as honorable as when they fight for the rights of all people.”
In response, Sharpton was unequivocal in saying there could be no tolerance of Blacks attacking Jews, and that “I’ve said to leaders that whatever these incidents happen in Crown Heights, they should be investigated to the full degree of the law and looked upon as hate crimes if it comes that way, just like if it was the other way around. We cannot be selective and call ourselves fair” he said, adding: “It gives you the moral authority to stand up for yourself if you also stand up for others.” Other speakers at the event on 21 January included New York state governor Elliot Spitzer, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Charles Rangel.
