The nadir of the four days in August 1991 when Jews were scared to be seen outdoors on their own streets was the murder of Yankel Rosenbaum Hy”d. The 29-year-old researcher from Australia, whose 30th yahrtzeit was last Wednesday, was attacked by a mob as he was on his way home after Maariv.
Norman Rosenbaum, the young husband and father who took it upon himself to be the voice for justice for his brother from distant Melbourne, passed away last year. His oldest grandson is just ten years old, too young to grasp why his grandfather made the 23-hour trip from the Land Down Under to the Big Apple more than 250 times.
“Norman was a tzaddik,” said Rabbi Shea Hecht, chairman of Lubavitch’s educational arm and a spokesman for the community during that dark period. “If not for him, the city would not be the same.”
On August 19, 1991, B.B. King, a famous blues guitarist, was performing in Crown Heights as part of a series of concerts arranged by then–city councilman Marty Markowitz. The event attracted a large crowd from outside the neighborhood.
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