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Meyerson was just 6 on August 19, 1991 when a car driven by a Hasidic man accidentally killed 7-year old Gavin Cato, a Black child
Meyerson was just 6 on August 19, 1991 when a car driven by a Hasidic man accidentally killed 7-year old Gavin Cato, a Black child. A perfect storm of bad decisions, weak leadership and pent-up rage sparked widespread violence. Orthodox Jews were targeted by Black protesters, and a yeshiva student, Yankel Rosenbaum, was stabbed to death. Meyerson views the events through the lens of her father’s work as a civil rights lawyer, which included defending people swept up in the events. The podcast came from a desire to properly explore the events for her generation, and those to come. “I was talking to a friend who had only heard of the Crown Heights riot by name and was curious about the history, the context and the political implications of its fallout,” said Meyerson, who has contributed to The Nation, Wired, MSNBC (where she won an Emmy), The New Yorker and other media outlets. She grew up in Manhattan but spent eight years living in Crown Heights as an adult. Born to a Jewish mother an