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JewishHistoryעברית

Crown Heights riot

Date
19 August 1991 – 21 August 1991Hebrew date: 9th of Elul, 5751 – 11th of Elul, 5751
Location
Crown Heights, BrooklynUnited States
Then part of
United States
Perpetrators
  • Lemrick Nelson Jr. (Individual)
  • Crowd of attackers (Mob)
Killed (estimate)
1[1]Yankel Rosenbaum, an Orthodox Jewish scholar visiting from Australia, was stabbed and died. The New York State Girgenti report records that a group of young Black men shouted "There's the Jew. Get the Jew." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recounts the same shout and that Rosenbaum was stabbed because he was an Orthodox Jew. Gavin Cato, killed in the preceding car accident, is not counted here.
Country

0.000018% – 0.000019% of the Jewish population of United States (c. 1970)[29]

Worldwide

0.0000076% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1990)[4]

Category
Pogrom
Confidence
High

Summary

On the evening of 19 August 1991, after a car in a Lubavitch motorcade struck and killed seven-year-old Gavin Cato in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, a crowd moved toward Kingston Avenue calling to "get a Jew." Yankel Rosenbaum, an Orthodox Jew from Australia, was chased, beaten, and stabbed; he died the next morning. The New York State review of the case records attackers shouting "There's the Jew. Get the Jew." Over the following days rioters threw bottles, bricks, and stones at Jews and displayed antisemitic banners, including one reading "Hitler did not do the job." Lemrick Nelson Jr. was acquitted of state murder charges and later convicted in federal court of violating Rosenbaum's civil rights because of his religion.

Sources

  1. Richard H. Girgenti, A Report to the Governor on the Disturbances in Crown Heights, Volume II. New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (1993)
  2. United States v. Nelson, 68 F.3d 583. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1995)
  3. New York City Crown Heights, Brooklyn Riot - 1991. Baruch College, City University of New York

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 13,103,000[4]c. 1990DellaPergola's revised core estimate for 1 January 1990 in the 2024 Year Book chapter.
  • United States: 5,370,000 – 5,520,000[29]c. 1970NJPS-era AJYB text puts American Jewry at about 5,370,000 in the 1971 survey framing and about 6 million by 1970 in a rounded narrative; DellaPergola's later revised core series uses 5,520,000 for the United States in 1970.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
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  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
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  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
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  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
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  48. Norway. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  50. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  53. Statistics of Jews (World and US Jewish Population). American Jewish Year Book 1946–1947, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1947)
  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
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  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  58. Archives juives n°45/2 — Les Juifs d'Algérie. Archives Juives / Les Belles Lettres (2012)
  59. EHRI Country Report — Tunisia. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
  63. Argentina Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
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