In early March, Gil Monrose, Brooklyn pastor, and Evan Bernstein, director of an organization that fights hate crimes, visited Holocaust and other Jewish sites in Poland.
The purpose of the visit was to strengthen relationships between Caribbean and Jewish Americans in Brooklyn to fight the rise of hate crime.
Monrose is the lead pastor of Mount Zion Church of God 7th Day in Brooklyn. His involvement in many community-building activities, such as gun violence prevention, serves as the foundation for his role as the director of Faith-Based and Clergy Initiatives at the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office. Bernstein is the director of the NY-NJ activities of the Anti-Defamation League, which was founded in 1912 to combat anti–Semitism and other forms of bigotry.
The two leaders visited the Warsaw Ghetto, the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camps, and the Jewish Community Center in Krakow.
The visit was spurred by the escalating number of hate crimes in Brooklyn. The New York Police Department has reported that hate crimes have more than doubled in New York City compared to last year at this time. There has been a noticeable rise of hateful acts in North Brooklyn, particularly Nazi-related graffiti. Crown Heights has seen a sharp rise of hate crimes. Last year’s crimes included a middle-aged Jewish man beaten to the ground, an Orthodox Jewish man chased by a man with a tree branch, and another Orthodox man choked against a fence. In the subways, hate crimes have tripled over the 2018 rates for January and February, according to the NYPD data released on March 25th.
The pastor and Jewish leader made available their reflections and photos about the trip.
Interview with Pastor Gil Monrose and Mr. Evan Bernstein
Q: Take us back to when you first discussed the idea of this trip. How did it come about?
Evan Bernstein: Last year, I joined Pastor Monrose on a mission trip to Israel with two hundred Brooklyn United Churches congregants. I observed how the trip participants reacted to some of the sites there, such as Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, and could see that there was a lack of knowledge about Judaism and Jewish people. I realized just how little communication and interaction this community has with the Jewish population in their neighborhoods.
The anti-Semitic incidents that have occurred over the last six to eight months in Brooklyn were due to, at least partially, this same lack of communication and understanding of “the other”. Piecing these thoughts together caused me to start developing ideas to help this community experience Jewish life and history with all the senses, in a way that can’t be done in a museum. I had the idea to bring pastors to Auschwitz-Birkenau because of the magnitude of that place, and its significance to Jews of this generation. The only person that came to mind to co-pilot a model for this trip was Pastor Monrose.
Monrose: We need to understand the totality of another’s experience, especially the history and pain.
Q. What was the experience in Poland like?
Monrose: The death and destruction around the concentration camps and ghettos were so palpable. The image of a mirror describes my emotions. I feel the same way when I visit places of my own people’s dark history. Within the suffering of the six million Jews who were murdered, I could see similarities with the black experience. At the same time, as I visited the Holocaust memorials, I knew that the Jewish people triumphed. The Jews rose again and here Evan and I are at the place that was specifically designed to cut off their lineage.
Bernstein: I experienced overwhelming sorrow and sadness, yet, I thought about how the journey of a Jewish man and a Caribbean man walking around Poland is exactly what Hitler didn’t want to happen. It was so contrary to what the Third Reich ever thought would happen, so my ultimate feeling was hope.
Q: What makes your partnership so valuable?
Monrose: Crown Heights is a critical neighborhood when I think about the communities I serve. It has a high concentration of Jews and Caribbean Americans living within the same footprint. This high concentration of diversity calls for a level of understanding between groups so that all can live in peace and harmony. As Evan said earlier, the increase in anti-Semitic and hate-fueled incidents in Crown Heights proves that there is work to be done here. When leaders can work together, it is easier for those who follow to do the same.
Bernstein: The need for togetherness is extremely heightened right now. There are certainly leaders in Brooklyn that are trying to bring the community together, but we need to do more and think outside the box.
Pastor Monrose has a congregation and a following and visibility in the community. When Caribbean and Jewish leaders work together the people whom they influence are more willing to help each other. Pastor Monrose also has a great ability to weave the experience into his sermons that reach the whole community in a unique way.
Q: Now that you are home, what’s next?
Bernstein: We don’t want to lose momentum. We have discussed adding a stop to Israel as an additional component to end on a more hopeful and positive note. Israel can showcase the progression of the Jewish people from hardship to eventually achieving the Jewish State. In 2020, we also hope to develop a similar effort that will help Jews and Caribbean Brooklynites explore black history in America.
We are currently sharing our journey in Poland with our various audiences, including the long-term goals that we are developing. Referencing a lived experience rather than a textbook page will be a great tool for pastors. The communities then can sense more deeply their common path together.
Monrose: Experience is the greatest teacher. To experience what we did in Poland can change your language, outlook on life and temperament in our approach to suffering. It was life-changing for me.
I couldn’t have gained such a full understanding of the devastation Europe’s Jews experienced without seeing it with my own eyes. When you experience it, it’s easier to mediate between your communities.
If there is an issue between the Caribbean-American and Jewish communities or whomever, there needs to be mediators. Mediators should understand both sides, be able to sit down and come to conclusions. If there were mediators in the early 20th century, maybe we wouldn’t have had the Holocaust.
Q. Tell us about the spiritual aspect of the trip.
Monrose: The church believes that everything happens through the will of God, and sometimes the darkest moments in history reflect the goodness in humanity. Visiting the Holocaust sites was a spiritual living moment because it shows that God didn’t give up on the Jewish people, just like He didn’t give up on us during slavery. We have a God who consistently takes care of His own even when there is evil in the world.
Bernstein: One spiritual moment happened at the end of the tracks at Birkenau. Pastor Monrose and I were praying alongside each other. Our prayers sounded different, but you could tell that they were both from the heart and soul. While we prayed for the 6 million, we felt extremely connected.
Monrose: We were also praying for the other 6 million, the good people who stood idle and didn’t know how to interact with one another. This is happening in a lot of places, but Brooklyn is a genuine case study for this. We need to see that the only option is to live in peace and harmony, rather than try to destroy an entire people because of who they are.
You can learn more about the work of Evan Bernstein and ADL New York/New Jersey at http://nynj.adl.org and Pastor Gil Monrose’s work at the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams at https://www.brooklyn-usa.org/.
