Rabbi Calls for Healing Among Lakewood Jews Blacks
Source: The Ocean County Observer 3/07/01
Rabbi Calls for Healing Among Lakewood Jews, Blacks
By LOIS A. KAPLAN, Staff Writer
LAKEWOOD — Rabbi Moshe Z. Weisberg, a spokesman for Lakewood’s Orthodox Jewish community, said last night he would like to heal whatever divisions there are between his own and the township’s African-American communities and “move on in a spirit of harmony and respect.”
Responding to angry reactions by some local African-Americans to a judge’s decision to place Brian Haikins, 32, in the county’s pre-trial intervention program, Weisberg said he had apologized twice after the Aug. 30 incident to James M. Waters, president of the Lakewood branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The pre-trial program is generally reserved for first-time nonviolent offenders.
An Ocean County grand jury earlier indicted Haikins for bias-crime assault on a 7-year-old Lakewood boy plus criminal harassment of the child and three women who came to his aid. If Haikins successfully completes the program, the charges will be dropped.
Police said Haikins grabbed the boy, who is black, hit him, shouted racial slurs at him and threatened the adults.
An attorney for Haikins, an Orthodox Jew with no prior record, said Haikins’ fear that the boy had injured one of his own children had driven him into an “irrational, emotional rage.”
Police found no evidence of injury to Haikins’ children.
Weisberg noted last night he had also telephoned one of the women, Audrey Wise, several times after the incident but was told she would not speak to him.
The rabbi described Haikins as deeply regreting the incident. “He is upset and apologetic,” he said.
Responding to the women’s complaint that Haikins’ November letter of apology was not sent to them until much later, Weisberg said Haikins’ attorney had said there were legal reasons for not contacting witnesses. He added that the process of getting into the pre-trial program was a sobering one and that the program will give Haikins a chance “to get his life together” after months of facing the prospect of jail.
Waters said he believed the apology should have been delivered much sooner. Concerning the possibility of a civil rights lawsuit, mentioned at Monday’s meeting, he said the boy’s family will discuss it and consult an attorney before deciding.
Local branches of his association generally do not sue, he said, and such decisions usually come from state branches or the national organization.
“Ideally, the concern on both sides of this issue should be the well-being of the child, who may have lasting psychological scars,” he said.
