The play, "Do Jewish Lives Matter" arose out of the Crown Heights Riot in Brooklyn, a Pogrom where a Black boy was accidentally killed by a Hasidic driver with devastating results. James Baldwin, the famous Negro writer, as far back as 1948 wrote, "Georgia has the Negro as a target of hatred. Harlem has the Jew."

In 1973 Rabbi Kahane wrote, "In no way should we refuse to see the danger to Jews that comes from Black hatred. It is of epidemic proportions." And again in 1977, when addressing an audience, he said, "In Crown Heights, where poor Jews live side by side with Blacks and are regularly robbed, mugged, terrorized, a Black explosion against them is inevitable."