In an excellent piece for Ha'aretz, Shahar Smoocha writes about the Jewish vigilantes who patrol the Chabad-Lubavitch sections of Crown Heights. Notable is the continued use of the word "schvartze" and the reluctance of the vigilantes to form a joint patrol with neighborhood blacks. In the words of Rabbi Baruch Spielman, the former head of the Va'ad Hakahol, the Crown Heights Jewish Community Organization:
"Can Golani [an elite Israeli army infantry division] and Fatah [a branch of the PLO] patrol together?"
Apparently, in the eyes of Crown Heights leadership, all blacks are criminals, all blacks are animals, and all blacks are beneath contempt.
[And, no, none of this takes away the need for community patrols, or even the need for exclusively Jewish patrols. But it points out again that, no matter how much haredim of all stripes seek to deny it, they have a problem relating to the non-Jews who live among them or whom they live among. This in no doubt comes in part from the dominant haredi theology of Jewish superiority and exclusiveness. A lot can and should be forgiven a community that has suffered the only pogrom on record in the entire history of America. This does not mean that Chabad of Crown Heights should get a free pass for its gratuitous racism, only that this racism be put in its proper context. To his credit, Shahar Smoocha does exactly that.]