Today, Yud Elul, marks 35 years since Yankel Rosenbaum Hy”d, a 29-year-old Australian Lubavitcher, was murdered during the Crown Heights riots of 5751.

For days, Black mobs rampaged through Crown Heights, attacking Jews and Jewish property as antisemitic cries filled the streets. On the night of Yud Elul, amid shouts of “Kill the Jews,” Yankel was chased through the neighborhood and surrounded by a mob near President Street and Brooklyn Avenue.

He was murdered that night.

The killing became one of the defining atrocities of the Crown Heights riots and set off a long struggle to bring those responsible to justice.

Yankel’s only sibling, Norman Rosenbaum, a lawyer living in Australia, made that struggle a central part of his life. Over the following decades, he flew from Australia to New York more than 250 times, pressing prosecutors, elected officials and city authorities to pursue the case and refusing to allow his brother’s murder to disappear from public attention.

The fight continued through years of court proceedings and setbacks. Norman remained its driving force until his passing in Australia in 2020.

Over the years, memorial gatherings have been held at President Street and Brooklyn Avenue, the corner where Yankel was murdered, to mark his yahrtzeit and keep his memory alive.

In the decades since the riots, relations between Crown Heights’ Black and Jewish communities have improved considerably.

At the same time, the neighborhood has faced renewed antisemitic provocation from outside agitators, including attempts in recent years to bring hostile demonstrations and violent rhetoric into Crown Heights itself.

Thirty-five years after Yankel Rosenbaum Hy”d was murdered, his yahrtzeit is again being marked in Crown Heights, together with the memory of Norman Rosenbaum’s decades-long fight to see justice done.

Photos of the riots and ensuing protests for justice – care of RebbeDrive.