One warm evening, I remember seeing one of the greatest acts of bravery I’ve ever seen in person.
A former Shomrim member raced down the steep decline of the Greenspring Avenue quarry, dropped into the cold water, and saved the life of a young man who was attempting suicide.
That same former Shomrim member on that same night helped the Baltimore City Police identify a suspect in the shooting of an off-duty City Police detective.
This, I believed, was what Shomrim was all about.
In November of 2009, almost 3,000 Jews, blacks, Hispanics and just plain old neighbors got together at Northwestern High School. There was a flag football game going on between a Shomrim team and the Northwest Police District. But nobody really cared much about the score of any game. Because there were pony rides, children’s activities and other rides. Hot dogs, candy and raffles. People of so many different cultures reflecting the neighborhood were together on a pleasant Sunday afternoon for a good, inexpensive time. And it didn’t hurt that some $15,000 was raised that Sunday afternoon for the Baltimore City Police Mounted Division, the nation’s oldest.
Politiicans were there. The Mayor was there, City Council members, other elected officials as well. It was a win-win.
But there are so many less dramatic stories that no one will ever really know about. Some of them involve the recovery of a chid’s stolen bike. There were times when the Baltimore City or County Police asked Shomrim to help them find missing people, not just Jewish missing people, just people who had lost their way.
There is absolutely no excuse if the allegations are true that a Shomrim member bloodied a 15-year-old high school student by hitting him with a Shomrim radio.
Now all the usual suspects whose voices are empowered by these sorts of subjects get to the media like sharks seeking out blood.
Truth is, it’s a shame that conflict is the magnet that brings dialogue to the forefront. The issues in the Park Heights corridor have been there for years, and yet little if anything is done to bring communities together for honest discussioin in a spirit of building bridges.
Instead, it’s the blacks and the Jews. It’s about fear, mistrust and all of this is exacerbated by a trigger incident such as the one we’ve been reading about lately.
Shomrim must work through this, checking its own pulse to make sure that its membership understands a clearly defined mission, and that mission as I always understood it was to be the “eyes and the ears” of the police.
But no matter who is guilty or innocent here, the fact on the ground is that we need more to do together. There are so many really good people in the neighbhorhoods bordering Park Heights. And those people come in all colors, religions, cultures and backgrounds. I watched many of those white, brown, black, yellow, Jewish, Christian, Baptist, Catholic, Hispanic and Middle Eastern people build a playground together at the Fallstaff Elementary School. There are people of all races and religions working together as part of neighbhorood associations.
I could clearly understand, though, that when a non-Jewish person of color looks at Shomrim, the Northwest Citizens Patrol and some of the other Jewish public safety organizations that are out there and they don’t see themselves involved, it begs questions.
Yet when the Jewish community looks south on Park Heights Avenue, they too have their questions.
But somewhere in between, be it the JCC or CHAI or in so many different ways, there are positives.
And it is my hope that this unfortunate incident that’s made the news lately will trigger forces of good to bring us together.
Be it the Associated or the elected officials. Be it the churches or the synagogues. Be it you and your neighbor.
Our mission should be to work our differences out together with hard work. And I’d be more than willing to volunteer to help in an effort of togetherness. I graduated from Northwestern High School, and I’m proud of it. I live blocks from the school and the street where I grew up.
These are great neighbhorhoods whether one is black, white, gentile or Jewish.
But there is one mistake, I feel.
These neighbhorhoods don’t belong to any one religion or race. They belong to us all.
You know, I’m watching as my cousin is getting ready to deploy for active duty in Afghanistan. He is a captain in the U.S. Marines. He’s going to serve with black Marines, white Marines, Christian Marines, Jewish Marines, Asian Marines, Hispanic Marines and Islamic Marines. When the Taliban shoots at them, all they see are Americans.
We here in the neighborhoods of Glenn, Fallstaff, Cross Country, Cheswolde and others are all Baltimoreans. We want what’s best for our city and our communities.
Let’s learn from this incident.
Because we can.
Let’s move forward together.

Phil,

You are missing one major point here. Most jews, especially those that don’t live in Northwest Baltimore City, don’t identify at all with the Jews that live there, and many in fact actively distance themselves from the predominantly orthodox lower income jewish population there.

They don’t have to live with spiking crime rates in Baltimore City or on the fringes of Baltimore County. Many of them have already fled the city, or many have even fled the suburb (Randalstown, Owings Mills) when it got “too diverse”.

Even the Jewish city counsel member in the area lives in a posh downtown condo as you have reported.