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Crown Heights, NY - As politicians from around the city gather in Crown Heights today to decry rising racial tensions there, some black and Jewish residents there say elected officials are overreacting.

The rally is the third such news conference to call for calm in response to two assaults involving black and Jewish youth that have some public officials warning of the potential for riots like those that wracked the neighborhood in 1991.

Yet most of the culprits -- both black and Jewish -- are too young to remember the riots, and some community leaders say they are concerned that it's actually the grown-ups who are stoking a conflict between the groups.

The president of 77th Precinct Community Council in Crown Heights, James Caldwell, said he hasn't witnessed the sort of tension lately that once made the neighborhood a racial tinderbox.

"I just think that we as adults can push things too far," he said. "Sometimes kids are kids."

The founder of the Central Brooklyn Anti-Violence Coalition, Taharka Robinson, said the assaults were isolated.

"Everybody's running around going crazy as if we're on the verge of another riot," Mr. Robinson, who has advised the family of one of the victims, said. "It's ridiculous."

Moshe Goldman, 26, a part-time yeshiva student, said most people he knows don't see the incidents as a "race issue."

"It's simply a crime issue," he said. "No one's about to erupt into rioting."

The executive vice president of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, Rabbi Chanina Sperlin, seemed mystified at the idea that relations between blacks and Jews in Crown Heights are deteriorating.

"I don't think we have problems with our African-American neighbors," he said. "The problem is gangs from outside."

Rabbi Sperlin downplayed reports of daily attacks against Jews in the neighborhood that elected officials have cited as the reason for their concern.

What could I tell you: Last night there was no assault, the night before there was no assault," he said, although he did acknowledge that last week there had been three confrontations.

An event today, labeled a "Unity Press Conference to Ease Tensions in Crown Heights," will be attended by as many as 15 elected officials, among them the city comptroller, William Thompson, and about a dozen state Assembly and City Council members.

Mr. Robinson suggested the press conference was both insulting and unnecessary.

"None of these people live around here," he said. "Everybody's stumping. It's re-election time. They have other political aspirations."