Washington – Al Sharpton Admits To Using ‘Cheap’ Rhetoric About Jews

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    Washington – Al Sharpton appealed to Reform Jews for a united front in facing down anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of bias and acknowledged his role in stoking division, recounting how the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow reprimanded him for his “cheap” rhetoric.

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    The civil rights activist and MSNBC host reportedly has expressed regrets privately to Jewish leaders for the incendiary rhetoric that helped fuel the deadly Crown Heights riots in 1991. But Monday’s remarks here at the Religious Action Center’s Consultation on Conscience were the closest he has come in public in acknowledging his role.

    The invitation earned criticism for seeming to rehabilitate a figure at the center of a number of anti-Semitic clashes in the 1990s. After the accidental killing of a black child in Brooklyn by a car driven by a member of the Lubavitcher rebbe’s entourage, African-American protesters targeted religious Jews in the Crown Heights neighborhood.

    Yankel Rosenbaum, a graduate student affiliated with Chabad-Lubavitch, was stabbed to death in the rioting.

    Sharpton also was accused of inciting the violent firebombing of a Jewish-owned clothing store in Harlem in 1995.

    Without mentioning the Crown Heights riots specifically, Sharpton said he could have “done more to heal rather than harm.” And he said that all the public criticism he received paled next to the rebuke from Coretta Scott King, who was known for her closeness to the Jewish community. It appears to be the first time Sharpton has publicly shared the tale.

    “One of the things she said to me, she said, ‘Al, the purpose of our movement has never been to just get civil rights for us, it’s to protect and stand for civil and human rights for everyone,’” he recalled.

    “She said that ‘sometimes you are tempted to speak to the applause of the crowd rather than the heights of the cause, and you will say cheap things to get cheap applause rather than do higher things to raise the nation higher.’

    “She said, ‘I know that you may not have done things you’re accused of, but you could have spoken out louder, if you are going to be in the King tradition and if you are going to be invested in your roots, and if you are going to be what we invested in you to be.’

    “All of the editorials and the cartoons, and all that have raised various questions in my controversial career, never really impacted me like Mrs. King, who I grew up [with] in that movement, that had a gentle but firm way of correcting some of my excesses.”

    Sharpton’s overarching message to the Reform gathering was that blacks and Jews must overcome past differences to confront an increase in bias against all groups, particularly under President Donald Trump. He noted his recent work with the Reform movement exposing U.S. government abuses against migrants on the border, as well as attacks on houses of worship.

    “You cannot fight racism without fighting anti-Semitism,” he said.

    Referring to white supremacists behind two recent deadly attacks on synagogues, as well as the 2015 mass shooting in a black church in South Carolina, Sharpton said, “Unless we stand up together against this blatant anti-Semitic spirit, then I don’t have the right to stand up when they go into Charleston.”

    Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, who runs social media for Chabad, the movement whose members were principally targeted in the 1991 riots, watched the livestream of the speech and expressed his outrage on Twitter.

    “The willingness to wash away our pain is so cruel,” he said. The Religious Action Center “needs to deplatform hate … Not give it a pulpit and whitewash it.”

    Lightstone, who with his wife is also director of Tech Tribe, a Chabad center in Brooklyn, was tweeting in his personal capacity as a resident of Crown Heights, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

    Rosenbaum’s brother, Norman, wrote in a Washington Examiner op-ed that inviting Sharpton “sends a very dangerous and intolerable message to the anti-Semites among us.”

    Rabbi Jonah Pesner, the Religious Action Center director, acknowledged the pain that Sharpton’s appearance must be causing others.

    “That there are members of our Crown Heights family and our Chabad family that are in pain over this actually creates a lot of pain for us, and we’re sorry about that,” he said in an interview with JTA.

    “At this moment — when children are being separated from their parents at the border, and Jews are being murdered in the synagogues, and people of color are being gunned down in their churches, and people in mosques are being firebombed — we need to stand together, and Reverend Sharpton has stood with us these past couple of years.”

    In the same interview, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said Sharpton’s role as an ally in this moment of increased bias and violence should be factored into understanding why he was invited to speak.

    “There are many chapters in Reverend Sharpton’s life,” Jacobs said. “We are in a moment of urgency, and Reverend Sharpton has spoken up and has stood strongly with the Jewish community.”


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    13 Comments
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    DanielBarbaz
    DanielBarbaz
    4 years ago

    Sharpton admits culpability for riots and and a stabbing, and his “I’m sorry” is supposed to wipe the slate clean? What a miserable person. And even worse, are those who are ready to embrace him. Very very sad! And Rabbi Rick Roberts is a total fool with no sense of decency or self. I wonder if his brother had been murdered would he be so eager to “forgive” Al Sharpton?

    4 years ago

    A leopard doesn’t change it spots; not that long before Calvin Gato was accidentally struck and killed by a driver, a Chassidic child was also struck and killed by a Black driver, in Crown Heights. However, the Chassidim didn’t riot for three days and three nights, and burn the homes of Black residents, or torch their businesses, or assault Blacks in the streets. However, when it was done to the Chassidim, the news media totally ignored what was occurring, and blamed the Jews. Instead of Sharpton defusing the situation, which he could have done, he stroked the flames of anti-semitism and racial hatred. The federal government was useless, as it did nothing to investigate the pogrom. Their was a Commission which was set up, and it held Governor Cuomo (the senior one), Mayor Dinkins, and his so-called Police Commissioner, Brown culpable. However, there was no mention of Sharpton. He should have been indicted by a federal grand jury for causing the rioting. To this date, outside of Hannity on Fox reminding the public, the news media seems to have forgotten about Sharpton’s role in that pogrom. Even the Democratic candidates for President kiss his tuchas, for his endorsement.

    bsnow
    bsnow
    4 years ago

    Shady Sharpton was the only person to make a program in America He’s a
    Despicable Subhuman

    misslydia128
    misslydia128
    4 years ago

    His rhetoric wasn’t just cheap . It was incitement to murder

    puppydogs
    puppydogs
    4 years ago

    This rabble rouser needs to retire. He’s an embarrassment to his people and his buddies like Obama and Farrakhan

    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    4 years ago

    What’s the difference between Slim Shady and a bucket of what was tossed on Homon Harosha’s head? The bucket!

    Yisroel
    Yisroel
    4 years ago

    Fact: Sharpton is not a Reverend. He was not ordained.
    Opinion: Sharpton is a con man; if a politician trots him out to make herself “kosher” she will not get my vote.

    Normandavid1
    Normandavid1
    4 years ago

    He’s playing a nice game.

    PaulinSaudi
    PaulinSaudi
    4 years ago

    Yep. He has done a lot of dumb stuff. No doubt about it.

    lazy-boy
    Active Member
    lazy-boy
    4 years ago

    How about this:

    “Adolf Hitler appealed to Reform Jews for a united front in facing down anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of bias and acknowledged his role in stoking division, recounting how the Nazi Party elated him for his “cheap” rhetoric.”

    I bet the Reform would accept Hitler ym”s plea also…..

    Phineas
    Phineas
    4 years ago

    I worked on the Freddy’s Fashion Mart case (I was a pretty new attorney and didn’t do much) representing one of the contractors. Sharpton’s words led to multiple deaths of Freddy’s employees who happened to be African American.

    Shimon
    Shimon
    4 years ago

    Rev Al and the reform jews: A perfect shidduch.

    TruthIsIt
    TruthIsIt
    4 years ago

    If you believe anything that come of this fools mouth then I have a bridge to sell you..