What Happens When a Hassid Picks a Fight With a Black Man

Moshe Kravitsky, a 33-year-old father of three from Crown Heights, decided to find out what the reaction of a New York City crowd would be to a hassidic man picking a fight with a black man on public transit. The video itself is interesting, but the backstory is even more so:

“Performing, entertaining my whole life was always something people thought I was crazy to pursue – especially here in Hasidic circles,” says Kravitsky. “But ultimately, I put myself out there, poke fun at myself – in order to bring laughter and meaning to the world around me. Though this was the first time I ever did something like this, and tons of people tried to talk me out of it, it just felt right. Like, this will make the world so engrossed in racial tensions breathe easier — maybe even think differently.”

Acting in the video with Kravitsky is Cameron Bhola; a 30 year old Actor, Media Production Graduate, who hails from Brooklyn. They met when Bhola picked Kravitsky up – as his Uber Driver.

Since the two loved acting, they thought of performing a skit on their local subway about a racial fight over something that would cause friction between a black and Jewish person.

“Entertaining is an awesome way to send across messages to people,” says Bhola, “because their thirst for being captivated and intrigued trumps all other forms of information delivery. Most people don’t want to read messages or listen to lectures to gain information and knowledge they need to be or rather prefer to be shown.”

“When I got in his car, he said you can put any music you want on from your phone, and gave me the aux jack,” Kravitsky recalls. “I have tons of music, but I thought I’d give him a good laugh, so I went to youtube and found the ‘Jewiest’ version of Hava Nagilah I could find. We both cracked up at how cheesy the can be sometimes; thinking all hasidic Jews just listen to ‘hava nagilah on a loop’ on their phones….because whatever else would we listen to?”

The conversation turned to the issue of racism, and how sad it is to witness the racial tensions rising like wildfire throughout the US.

As the unlikely pair both possess a strong love of acting and inspiring others, they decided to make a race-centric video that wouldn’t end the way most people would expect — something that would come out of left field, and perhaps, maybe even change the way people of all backgrounds on the subway, and the world, think. “It doesn’t always have to end in violence or G-d forbid, loss of life.” Said Bhola.

“Sometimes, a tiny drop of humor is all it takes to destroy even the largest, darkest evil of all mankind: baseless hatred,” says Kravitsky.

Moshe Kravitsky works as a fundraiser for Yad L’Shliach.