THE NY TIMES REPORTS: In mid-April, a young black man in Crown Heights was struck with a baton and sprayed with Mace by two white men, according to the police, and ever since, tensions have run high in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Jews and blacks who live there eye one another warily, and police patrols and surveillance have intensified.
But there is another split on these streets, not between Jews and blacks but between Jews and Jews. The feuders, paradoxically, are neighborhood patrol groups that officially aspire to keep the peace.
Jewish patrols exist in several New York neighborhoods, like Brooklyn’s Borough Park, but Crown Heights is the only area that has two such competing patrols. Their names, Shomrim and Shmira, both derive from the Hebrew word meaning “guard,” but the two groups fiercely resent each other nonetheless.
“Shmira has a litany of things about Shomrim that they say they did wrong,” said Dov Hikind, an assemblyman who represents several other heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn. “As for Shomrim, when I met with them, they said, ‘We have a file about Shmira.’ ”
The coordinator of Shomrim, said that Shmira members had intimidated his volunteers, falsely informed on them to the police, and even jammed their radios with shrieks, beeping sounds and what he described as “Christian music.”
The director of Shmira, denied these accusations, saying, in effect, that the coordinator of Shomrim was a sore loser with a weakening organization.
Shmira and Shomrim were once a single group, but they split apart roughly a decade ago and, predictably, disagree over the reasons why. They also display a sibling-like rivalry. The Shomrim coordinator said that he put a patrol car on the street in 2006, complete with flashing roof lights and the Shomrim logo, but pulled it off a month later when Shmira introduced its own car.
“I don’t want people to think I’m the Shmira,” he said. “Their whole motive is to be like us.”
Tensions have been stoked by an anonymous blog featuring posts and comments that are virulently anti-Shmira and strongly favorable to Shomrim.
Mr. Hikind said he had been urging the two groups to reunite. “There is no reason in the world why there should be two groups of people involved in patrols,” he said.
But Shomrim resisted, explaining: “When people come and tell me to make peace with them, I say, ‘To me, they don’t exist anymore.’ ”
The feuding patrol groups have surfaced in the recent tensions in Crown Heights. Charles Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, has mentioned Shmira’s name in connection with his investigation into the assault on April 14. By contrast, Mr. Hynes, who has convened an investigative grand jury to look into the attack, praised Shomrim, calling the group “established” and “respectable.”
Mr. Stern has denied any link between Shmira and the attack.
And the feuding continues.
“It’s a real shame, an embarrassment for myself and the public,” said Rabbi Israel Shemtov, who is sometimes credited with founding the group that preceded Shomrim and Shmira. “I said to them, ‘I’ll lock both of you in a room, and don’t come out until you work it out.’ ”
Link to NY Times, click HERE.
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
15 Responses
the only person who can make peace is yisroel shemtov but i dont think thats going to happen any time soon maybe a good start would be to have a seperate comunity group whoes job would be deal with the government on security issues this way shmira & shomrim would not be able to get to close to the police which could lead to truble
When our own will make sholom with each other,then Moshiach can come.
“שים שלום טובה עלינו”
now it makes it to YWN.
Nothing new here, unfortunately.
If we would only have achdus, every other problem Klal Yisroel is facing would melt away.
Moshiach Now!
And the feuding continues.
שלום על ישראל
Shomrim and Shmira
.
“I said to them, ‘I’ll lock both of you in a room, and don’t come out until you work it out.’
שים שלום טובה על ישראל
You people don’t know the half of it. Take a guess who suffers from all this? Yep! WE DO!!
Wish both of them would grow up.
signed
ticked off in Crown Heights
PS We really need all this publicity right now, don’t we???
Once again, good frum people start out doing something Lshem Shomayim and then all of a sudden egos and other trivialities get in the way, and everyone forgets about the ultimate- Kiddush vs. Chillul Hashem. Whatever the disagreement is, is it better that the New York Times finds out about it and jump all over it? Do we really need to give the rest of the world (and of course our own brothers) another reason to bash frumkeit?? So sad.
We call other communities “uncivilized”. We have to look at ourselves sometimes.
MAJOR CHILLUL HASHEM.
“Kol machlokes she’ainoi Leshem Shomayim, sofioi lehisbotel”
why are they fighting over such trivial things? why cant they join up together and make a kiddush hashem, instead of the opposite!!
does this have to do with the difference between mishichistim and the old chabad people.
This is a genuine Chilull Hashem.
this is ridiculous – flatbush and boro park dont have this problem, why crown heights? honestly, someone should try solving this aaron hakohein style
CH does have a Shomrim that work with the NYPD just like Boro Park Williamsburg & Flatbush work with the NYPD, and just like Crown Heights, Boro Park Williamsburg & Flatbush all have the same problem like Shomrim have in the CH with other group trying to undermined them.
they all have different names
Crown Heights has SHMIRA BUFFERS
Boro Park has the BUCHRIM BUFFERS CHANNLE
Williamsburg has the BUFFERS (no name yet)
and Flatbush had the K9 BUFFERS
so its not only crown heights that has this problem with buffers.
AND PLEASE I PLEAD WITH YOU DO NOT BELIEVE ANY THING YOU HEAR, EVERY BODY MAKES UP ANOTHER STORY DON’T HEAR ANY OF IT.
#7 obviousley it wasnt started lshem shamayim because then they wouldnt be fighting now if it was lshem shamayim then one of the groups would pull out and let the other take over it shows that it started not lshem shamayim rather for kavod