June 5, 2020 “They shall not defile their camps”    Nasso: 5:3

Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by the demonstrations nor even the looting and burning. Instead, think through the social conditions that mobilize the demonstrators.  Late 19^th and early 20^th century New York City police violence against Jews was a routine aspect of tenement and workplace life. Early 1900s NYC Police Commissioner Theo. Bingham, who referred to Jews as unfit for labor and responsible for 50% of crime, granted official sanction to anti-Jewish constabulary violence. Jewish protests and even riots were routine though inchoate responses to brutal police profiling and employer-sponsored violence. The unintended consequences of institutional racism, whether against early 20^th century Jews or 21^st century African-Americans, cut two ways.