Walter Adler: Assaulted for Being a “Dirty Jew” …and The Traveler from Samara Still Lives
December 12th, 2007 by DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS, TMV Columnist
(photos on next page)
There was a fight on the Q train. The last car was filled with people rolling toward Brooklyn.
A young man, accompanied by his girlfriend, had just been wished Merry Christmas by another group on the train.
The young man happily answered back with, “Happy Chanukah.”
That’s when all hell broke loose.
One of a group of other young people on the train immediately hiked up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo of Christ. Fourteen men and women jumped the “Happy Chanukah” man, yelling, “He said, ‘Happy Hanukkah, that’s when the Jews killed Jesus…’ dirty Jews and Jew bitches.”
Much screaming, bellowing, blood loss and broken bones later…
The man who said “Happy Chanukah” is Walter Adler, 23, an honors student at Hunter College, who now has a broken nose and a split lip.
He had managed to pull the emergency brake as the train was hurtling toward DeKalb Ave. station
A horde of police came aboard. They arrested 10 people, charging six with assault and four with unlawful assembly.
Two of the men arrested that night have been arrested for race crimes before.
There’s a back-story: In the midst of the melee, Adler thought, “I’m bleeding all over the place, there’s lots of people, why isn’t anyone else doing anything?”
But one stranger on the train had risen to help. And he flailed away for all he was worth to help protect Adler as best he could. A bantam-weight man from Bangladesh. A young soul studying to be an accountant. His name is Hassan Askari. He is 20 years old.
Hassan Askari has two black eyes from the fight. But he also has a new friend. Adler.
Adler says Hassan is a hero. Hassan says his parents taught him to help those in need.
Like many a persons who, when faced with sudden threat, and through whom fierce angels suddenly surge , whatever one would call that Force of those moments of tension, that Force retreats when the threat is past….
leaving just the humble human form standing there, mumbling things like Hassan is saying now, “I just did what I had to do.”
And the ones who assaulted the travelers? Thus far, six were charged with assault, four with unlawful assembly. There may be additional charges.
from the NYPost by Jennifer Fermino, Erika Martinez and Peter Cox
One of those collared straphangers yesterday denied making anti-Semitic taunts and said his mother is Jewish.
Joseph Jirovec, 19 - the son of a city firefighter who is currently serving in Iraq - has pleaded guilty to a 2005 bias crime against blacks.
“We are not racist against Jewish people. That whole hate-crime thing is ridiculous,” Jirovec said.
He claims Adler’s group was drunk and taunted his group, and one yelled, “We killed Jesus.”
Jirovec will soon begin serving six months for his role in the attack against four men in Gerritsen Beach.
“I’m trying to stay out of trouble,” he said. “When I get out, I want to go into the military.”
(I sense what some readers might be thinking. Me too.)
Below are some of the pictures of the alleged attackers:
But, before we go there, just this. As you may have deduced, Hassan the brave Bangladeshi is a Muslim. And of course, Walter Adler is a Jew. And in that effusiveness that is beautiful, and for which many a Semitic person is known, Adler said… “A random Muslim guy jumped in and helped a Jewish guy on Hanukkah - that’s a miracle…”
Let us all who wish to, hold the thought that someday, in our lifetimes, such a matter will NOT be a miracle, that it will instead, be only USUAL and ordinary. And blessed, as always.
Here is a video of Walter Adler (who is no weakling), his heartfelt lady friend, and a gentle Hassan Askari speaking about what happened. Many will like what Askari says about his way of seeing others through his Muslim faith. Many will like what Walter says at the end about transcending all the religious arguments that keep people on ’sides’ rather than in harmony.
In that spirit, Hassan, and Walter and Company, will be celebrating the Jewish Festival of Lights together.
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CODA 1
The Samaritan Story
There’s quite a bit of skirmishing amongst different religious groups about the ‘real meaning’ of the Good Samaritan text in the NT. However, here, I just note the most simple aspect: In the OT, the Samaritans were a hated group.
The story goes, that when a traveler from another tribe had been beaten, robbed and left half dead at the side of the road, several persons from various social classes sidestepped the hurt man, or stepped over him and went their ways.
But, the Samaritan, one from a tribe that felt the dislike of many others, knelt at the injured man’s side, bound him up as best he could, carried him to shelter, paid the innkeeper to feed and keep watch over him, and made a troth to return and pay the innkeeper any additional expense, just so the injured man would be hopefully mended up again.
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CODA 2
Fight or Flight, not so fast. There’s also Freeze. Fight or Flight or Freeze.
Just to add a note to the idea that some who see others about to be harmed or being harmed, are in fact, just apathetic. That’s not always so, although we have quotes from people who say “I didn’t want to get involved. I could have been hurt or killed; I didn’t want to get involved.”
(The sensationalistic… and wrong… media attribution of ‘apathy’ to over 2 dozen non-witnesses in the Kitty Genovese case– a young woman was stabbed to death in a horrible repeat attack– has contributed to the idea that apathy is a usual stance in the face of terror. It isn’t. It’s unusual. )
But, it serves to note too, that though there is a ‘fight or flight’ instinct in people, …that there are several other instincts as well, that are not as often spoken about…. often people facing a crisis regarding strangers, feel neither fight nor flight, but just sit there unable to move….
Though not taking action may be caused by apathy, or by self-protection, or even cynicism, more often the person sits mute in a paralysis caused by abject fear.
Instead of running toward or away, the person who’ve described this at critical incident scenes, often say something like this: “I felt suddenly felt like a block of wood rooted to the spot.”
We see this in much mammal behavior too, when one of the group/herd is attacked… Some continue grazing as though nothing is occurring, some run, some fight, some stay rooted to the spot all big-eyed, and hardly breathing… which in the animal world, incidentally, is a signal to the predator that the ones rooted to the spot are vulnerable too.
But then there are those who jump in... What is that force that overcomes our deep instincts to run away or to become immobilized, and instead with a sort of Superman whoosh, is aroused by a sudden knell for mercy and protection?
Then, without thought for one’s own safety and life… we either try to intervene peacefully, or try to de-escalate a dangerous situation, or else jump right into the fray…
Scientists might be able to note where the brain lights up under critical event circumstances, or where the brain doesn’t light up. But that might not be the entire answer.
It may be that the sudden ‘must go to the aid of’ in order to protect and defend a stranger, is a physio/psychological/spiritual nexus that rises up in a person. Not simply an adrenalin surge. More than an instinct perhaps.
There may be a ’something else added, an x factor’ in the impulse to act protectively, that the mind, body and spirit create together only in the moments of extreme threat to human life.
Surely, though some have been badly injured, or died trying, whether in times of peace, or times of war… it is an amazing soulful phenomenon amongst humans, when one or another springs up to protect the life force of another person, whether they know that person or not, sometimes whether they even like that person or not.
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Pictures of alleged attackers
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Guns, Psychology, Sectarian Violence, Christians, Moral Values, Holidays, Muslims, Racism, Crime, Social Commentary, Jews, Anti-Semitism. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
December 12th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Skinheads — not Religious Right, as some would want others to believe…
Even a Bush adminstration desperate for progress in Iraq may not want any of these entering the military. It’s too late for them to work at Abu Ghraib.
December 12th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
He may be the kind of person you want in the military and police. (Ignore baggage associated with [the author of] the quote at the beginning this page, and go to author’s text)
December 12th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
With all due respect to Mr. Adler, I don’t think that it’s such a miracle… Not in America, anyway. Europe, yes. But here, for now, no.
I rode the subway earlier and thought about this incident. What would I do, and for whom? I think you don’t really know until you’re in that situation…
A few weeks ago, for the first time in a long time I was in a subway car in Brooklyn when a group of about 6-10 black teenage boys started taunting a black girl about their age. She moved around to get away from them but they started swarming and got loud chanting obscenities and such. The tension was palpable and at one point I distinctly remember saying “holy sh*t, this girl is about to get thrashed. And what will you do if that happens?” Luckily I didn’t have to find out as an elderly black woman in the car authoritarianly raised her voice and diffused those kids instantaneously (fascinating in of itself, actually), but given my size, not a whole lot different than Mr. Askari’s, I have to admit that I didn’t see myself standing much of a chance physically intervening against the negative energy of a pack of riled up teenage boys. I would have been more inclined to pull the emergency break or get out at the next stop only seconds away (Askari had a much longer interval between the last stop in Manhattan and first in Brooklyn on the Q train) and have the train halted and call for help, but does not physically intervening make me a coward or just smart?
Likewise, I have to also ask an honest question. Given Mr. Askari’s dimunitive nature (I still want to know how he physically pulled this off), was he a hero with behavior to be modeled or just an idiot who bit off far more than he could chew but got a lucky break? Well, his intentions were good, he pulled it off, and given the tribal overtones of the story, it feels good and in this case he was no doubt a hero…
Great post, Dr. E.
December 12th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Dr. E:
There’s another important component of the incident about which you’ve so thoughtfully written. And that is that while on the one hand it illustrates the best of what we can be (if I may be so bold as to lump us into the same group as the heroic Hassan Askari and the brave Walter Adler), it may also serve to remind people of how challenging things once were, and can be, on the NYC subway system. And it would not surprise me if this case, and the recent videotaping of a subway passenger being criminally harassed by a group of young women, leads to a ramped up police presence in the subway system over the next few weeks. And that is a sad reminder that even with heroes such as Askari among us, we will seemingly ever be forced to remain vigilant against the cowardly acts of those who victimize people on the subways.
These two cases, along with the case mentioned above by Idiosyncrat, don’t necessarily suggest that there’s a pattern of increasing subway crime in NYC. But you can damn well bet that police brass will take notice of this, and act accordingly.
What’s nearly of the most interest to me is the photos of some of those arrested. While the DA won’t likely be able to use them as evidence if these arrests happen to lead to a trial, they still tell such a powerful story. And it sure isn’t a pretty one. And while I know that there’s compelling reason to believe that the folks in those photos committed some very abhorrent crimes, I can’t help but to wonder how the parents of these young adults feel. How can they not feel let down and ashamed? And then some.
December 12th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
DLS- you’re absolutely correct- the attackers are skinheads and not the religious right. These skinheads glorify violence and drugs and do not respect others.
Idiosyncrat: I, like you, do not know how I would react in a similar situation with physical violence. I have stood up for people before (when the threat of a physical altercation was less). But if there was a full-fledge fight going on, I really don’t know what I would do. Even though I’ve had some boxing, a fight like that would still scare me and I’d probably want to avoid it. BTW: That’s a wonderful observation about the elderly black lady raising her voice. It also shows that the punks have respect for someone. I wonder how many of those punks in your example were raised by single mothers and they understood that woman’s authority.
Stolios: these kids parents probably don’t care (which is one of the reasons they are skinheads). Such a waste.
December 13th, 2007 at 5:47 am
Nameste and congrats to Askari and Adler. I read the story earlier elsewhere and found myself filling up with feelgood. It’s a great story. Like the hero former cop coming to the aid of the congregation, Askari stepped in to it……….and lucky for him and us we are reading a story that elevates us all as humans and what we are capable.
We never hear about it and I’m no expert, but I hear there is a Jewish population in Iran who choose not to go to Israel, and who survive amongst Muslims with relatively few incidents.
For the benefit of those unsure of what their reaction would have been, relax, one can never know how one would react until the moment presents itself. And yes, you’re right, good Samaritans sometimes do get killed too. The fact that you don’t know what the outcome will be, is what makes it such an enigma and beautiful in this case.
Dr. E: I thought, in addition to fight or flight, there was shock, or if you can’t escape, play dead. I believe it had to do with convincing a predator that you were not worth eating as in the wild they don’t like to eat dead meat unless forced to by starvation.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:27 am
DLS- you’re absolutely correct- the attackers are skinheads and not the religious right. These skinheads glorify violence and drugs and do not respect others.
Despite what others would have you and so many others believe, the Religious Right are not skinheads, not Nazis, etc. But that’s the guilt by association sought the next time someone in the RR says, in frustration about something, “This is a Christian Nation!” As Somebody has said already, the RR doesn’t hate the Jews, and in fact if anything, some in the RR are extra “hebraphilic” and especially pro-Israel. (That’s probably another reason why the far Left hates the RR so much.)
December 13th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Dear Spirasol; yes, there’s actually at least 6 other defenses besides ‘fight or flight,’ that seem clear…. one of them interestingly enough, is ‘feed,’ another one is ‘display-grow ‘big’ (no laughing now), another is ‘remain on scene act crippled’ and play dead goes under feigned
injury category, as does deflect predator from target with simulated wound or wounding. It’s a fascinating study… esp in light of the pitiful scrap motto ‘fight or flight’ that most people are fed in gradeschool long ago.
And, actually, your way of looking at “what would I do if confronted with such a situation?” was, dear Idiosyncrat, not only pretty exactly accurate, it also reminded me of a conversation I once had long ago with a venerable old man from India, a deeply religious Hindu, Shunyata, who said we cant know beforehand, not how we will act exactly, but what we will enact; we can only know in the moment. That some are ‘called’ in that moment. The rest of his remarkable take on violence is a story for another time. And, you ‘got it.’
Dear Stolios, I think the question, What would I do? of How would I react? is actually a question of the soul, and is a serious, sweet and substantive question to be asking oneself. I think it’s a question that comes from the deep unconscious. Some questions we ask ourselves are not to be answered in mundane ways only, such as “What would I do/act in such and thus situ. Sometimes, the question, as I perceive many of you here asking, is one that acts as a door to deeper questions about what we own and owe in humanity, about others’ and our
own fates or choices and the trajectories they cause, about other matters that are finite and some that are not.
An event can be seen as just an event, with a factual beginning, a middle and an end. But, a story, in reality of spirit, is never ending.
just my .02
dr.e.
December 15th, 2007 at 2:49 am
Thank you for this article and also the comments. The event which took place is shocking and clearly we should not be content to live in a world where incidents like these take place, often with immunity. The questions of the recent movie starring Meryl Streep, resound in my head ‘What do you live for? What do you stand for? What would you fight for? What would you die for? Dr e, I wonder if there are any of us who can answer these questions anymore or if we all stand in waiting so to speak. Can any of us speak except in the right now. For myself, experience has taught me, my own reactions in a given set of circumstances, often one thought through and anticipated, can surprise me. It is as if the person I think myself to be, fails to materialise and at other times I am met by someone who exceeds my expectations and then vanishes in the mist. Your words ’soulful phenomenon’ deserve careful consideration within the context of all that is good and all that is evil. Truly we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made ‘. Thank you again for a sensitive portrayal of a shocking event. LAS
December 16th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
dear Lesley-Ann, welcome. You’re a thoughtful person to notice that sometimes ‘a person’ ‘vanishes in the mist’… Long ago in mythos, sea and ocean creatures portrayed this phenom in ‘miracle stories,’ … that rising up by evocation, but thence sinking beneath the waves again. Sometimes considering the symbolism of the mythic can be a clear magnifying lens as per reality.
dr.e
December 17th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
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December 18th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
I guess the Mayor is going to give Mr. Askari an award tomorrow. Glad to hear of it.