The
Jewish Defense League (
JDL) is a
Jewish organization whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from
antisemitism by whatever means necessary".
[1] While the group asserts that it "unequivocally condemns terrorism", and claims to have a "strict no-tolerance policy against terrorism and other felonious acts,"
[2] it was described as "a right-wing terrorist group" by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation[3] in 2001, and as a
hate group involved in "anti-Arab terrorism" by the
Southern Poverty Law Center.
[4] According to the FBI, the JDL has been involved in plotting terrorist attacks within the
United States.
[3]
Founded by
Rabbi Meir Kahane in
New York City in 1968, JDL's self-described purpose was to protect Jews from local manifestations of antisemitism.
[1][5] Its criticism of the
Soviet Union garnered support for the group, transforming it from a "vigilante club" to an activist organization with membership numbering over 15,000.
[6] The group took to bombing Arab and Soviet properties in the United States,
[7] and targeting various alleged "enemies of the Jewish people", ranging from Arab-American political activists to
neo-Nazis, for assassination.
[8] A number of JDL members have been linked to violent, and sometimes deadly, attacks in the United States, including the killing of
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee regional director
Alex Odeh in 1985, and a plot to kill
U.S. Congressman Darrell Issa in 2001.
[9]
The 1994
Cave of the Patriarchs Massacre, in which dozens of
Palestinians at prayer were massacred by a gunman in the
West Bank city of
Hebron, was perpetrated by a one-time JDL member who had emigrated from the United States,
Baruch Goldstein.
[10] The JDL maintained, on its website, "we are not ashamed to say that Goldstein was a charter member of the Jewish Defense League", and described his action as "a preventative measure against yet another Arab attack on Jews".
[11]
Many Jewish groups have long been hostile to the group. According to one
Anti-Defamation League official, the group consists only of "thugs and hooligans".
[12]
[edit] Opposition to Soviet policies
Initially, the League was connected to a series of terrorist attacks against
Soviet interests in the United States, protesting that country's repression of
Soviet Jews, who were often jailed and refused
exit visas.
[13][14] The JDL decided that violence was necessary to draw attention to their plight, reasoning that
Moscow would respond to the strain on
Soviet–United States relations by allowing more emigration to
Israel.
[14]
On 29 November 1970, a bomb exploded outside the
Manhattan offices of the Soviet airline,
Aeroflot. An anonymous caller to the
Associated Press claimed responsibility and used the JDL slogan
Never again!. Another bomb attack, on January 8, 1971 outside of the Soviet cultural center in
Washington, D.C., was followed by a similar phone call, including the JDL slogan. A JDL spokesperson denied JDL involvement in the bombing, but refused to condemn it.
[1] In 1970, Soviet agents forged and sent threatening letters to Arab missions claiming to be from the JDL to discredit it. They also were ordered to bomb a target in the "Negro section of New York" and blame it on the JDL.
[15]
In 1971, a JDL member allegedly fired a rifle into the Soviet Union's mission office at the
United Nations. In 1972, two JDL members were arrested and charged with bomb possession and
burglary in a conspiracy to blow up the
Long Island residence of the Soviet Mission to the
United Nations. The two JDL members pled guilty and were sentenced to serve three years in prison for one, and a year and a day for the other. In 1975, JDL leader Meir Kahane was accused of conspiring to kidnap a Soviet diplomat, bomb the
Iraqi embassy in Washington, and ship arms abroad from
Israel. A hearing was held to revoke Kahane's
probation for a 1971
firebomb-making incident. He was found guilty of violating probation and served a one year prison sentence.
[1]
In 1972, a smoke bomb was planted in the
Manhattan office of music impresario
Sol Hurok, who organized Soviet performers' US tours. One of the secretaries died of smoke inhalation.
[16][17] Hurok and twelve others were injured. Jerome Zeller of the JDL was indicted for the bombing.
JDL activities were condemned by Moscow
refuseniks who felt that the group's actions were making it less likely that the Soviet Union would relax restrictions on Jewish emigration. On April 6, 1976, six prominent refuseniks —
Vladimir Slepak,
Alexander Lerner,
Anatoly Shcharansky, and
Iosif Begun — condemned the JDL's activities as terrorist acts, stating that their "actions constitute a danger for Soviet Jews... as they might be used by the authorities as a pretext for new repressions and for instigating anti-Semitic hostilities."
[1]
During the 1980s, past-JDL member
Victor Vancier (who later founded the Jewish Task Force), and two other former JDL members were arrested in connection with six incidents; a 1984 firebombing of an automobile at a Soviet diplomatic residence, the 1985 and 1986 fire and pipe bombings of a rival JDL member's cars, the 1986 firebombing at a hall where the
Soviet State Symphony Orchestra was performing, and two 1986 detonations of tear gas grenades to protest performances by Soviet dance companies.
[1] In a 1984 interview with Washington Post correspondent Carla Hall, Meir Kahane admitted that the JDL "bombed the Russian mission in New York, the Russian cultural mission here [Washington] in 1971, the Soviet trade offices."
[14][18]
[edit] Opposition to Vatican policies
On December 31, 1975, fifteen members of the League besieged the office of the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations in protest for Pope Paul VI's policy of support of Palestinian rights. The crisis was over after one hour, as the activists left the place after being ordered to do so by the local police. No arrests were made.
[19]
[edit] Solicitation of murder trial
On March 16, 1978 Irv Rubin said about the planned
American Nazi Party march in
Skokie,
Illinois: "We are offering $500, that I have in my hand, to any member of the community... who kills, maims or seriously injures a member of the American Nazi party." Rubin was charged with solicitation of murder but acquitted in 1981.
[20]
JDL members had often been suspected of involvement in attacks against neo-Nazis and other
Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites. In 1995, when the Toronto residence of
Ernst Zündel was the target of an arson attack, a group calling itself the "Jewish Armed Resistance Movement" claimed responsibility; according to the
Toronto Sun, the group had ties to the Jewish Defense League and to
Kahane Chai.
[21] The leader of the Toronto wing of the Jewish Defense League,
Meir Halevi, denied involvement in the attack, although, just five days later, Halevi was caught trying to break into the Zündel property, where he was apprehended by police.
[21][22] Later the same month Zündel was the recipient of a parcel bomb that was detonated by the Toronto Police Service's bomb squad.
[23]
[edit] Accused of murder of Alex Odeh
Alex Odeh was an
Arab-American who was killed on October 11, 1985 in a bombing at his office in
Santa Ana, California. Odeh was regional director of the
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Shortly before his killing, Odeh had appeared on the television show
Nightline, where he engaged in a tense dialogue with a representative from the Jewish Defense League.
[24]
Irv Rubin, chairman of the JDL, immediately made several controversial public statements in reaction to the incident: "I have no tears for Mr. Odeh," Rubin said. "He got exactly what he deserved." He also said: "My tears were used up crying for
Leon Klinghoffer."
[13] The
Anti-Defamation League and the
American Jewish Committee both condemned the murder.
Four weeks after Odeh's death, FBI spokesperson Lane Bonner stated the FBI attributed the bombing and two others to the JDL. In February 1986, the FBI classified the bombing that killed Alex Odeh as a
terrorist act. Rubin denied JDL involvement: "What the FBI is doing is simple.... Some character calls up a news agency or whatever and uses the phrase
Never Again... and on that assumption they can go and slander a whole group. That's tragic."
In 1987
Floyd Clarke, then assistant director of the FBI, wrote in an internal memo that key suspects had fled to Israel and were living in the
West Bank town of
Kiryat Arba. In 1988, the FBI arrested
Rochelle Manning as a suspect in a
mail bombing, and also charged her husband,
Robert Manning, whom they considered a prime suspect in the Odeh bombing. Both were members of the JDL. Rochelle's jury deadlocked, and after the
mistrial, she left for Israel to join her husband.
Robert Manning was extradited from Israel to the U.S. in 1993.
[13] He was subsequently found guilty of involvement in the killing of Patricia Wilkerson in another, unrelated bomb blast.
[25][26] William Ross, another JDL member, was also found guilty for his participation in the bombing that killed Wilkerson.
[25] Rochelle Manning was re-indicted for her alleged involvement, and was detained in Israel, pending extradition, when she died of a heart attack in 1994.
[25]
[edit] Mosque bombing and US Congressman assassination plot
On December 12, 2001, JDL leader
Irv Rubin and JDL member
Earl Krugel were charged with planning a terror attack against the office of
Arab-American Congressman
Darrell Issa, in the wake of the
September 11 attacks.
[27] The two also planned attacks on the
King Fahd Mosque in
Culver City, California.
Rubin claimed that he was innocent. On November 4, 2002, at the federal
Metropolitan Detention Center in
Los Angeles, California, Rubin slit his throat with a safety razor and jumped out of a third story window.
[12][28] Rubin's suicide would be contested by his widow and the JDL, particularly after his co-defendant pleaded guilty to the charges and implicated Rubin in the plot.
[12] On February 4, 2003,
Earl Krugel pleaded guilty to
conspiracy and weapons charges stemming from the terrorist plot, and was expected to serve up to 20 years in prison. The core of the evidence against Krugel and Rubin was in a number of conversations taped by an informant, Jewish pride activist Danny Gillis, who was hired by the men to plant the bombs but who turned to the FBI instead.
[12][29] According to one tape, Krugel thought the attacks would serve as "a wakeup call" to
Arabs.
[12]
Krugel was subsequently killed in prison by another inmate, on November 4, 2005.
[edit] Terrorism
In 2004 congressional testimony,
John S. Pistole, Executive Assistant Director for Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence for the
Federal Bureau of Investigation described the JDL as "a known violent extremist Jewish Organization."
[30] FBI statistics show that, from 1980 through 1985, there were 18 terrorist attacks in the U.S. committed by Jews; 15 of those by members of the JDL.
[13] According to the
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,
In a 1986 study of domestic terrorism, the Department of Energy concluded: "For more than a decade, the Jewish Defense League (JDL) has been one of the most active terrorist groups in the United States.... Since 1968, JDL operations have killed 7 persons and wounded at least 22. Thirty-nine percent of the targets were connected with the Soviet Union; 9 percent were Palestinian; 8 percent were Lebanese; 6 percent, Egyptian; 4 percent, French, Iranian, and Iraqi; 1 percent, Polish and German; and 23 percent were not connected with any states. Sixty-two percent of all JDL actions are directed against property; 30 percent against businesses; 4 percent against academics and academic institutions; and 2 percent against religious targets." (Department of Energy, Terrorism in the United States and the Potential Threat to Nuclear Facilities, R-3351-DOE, January 1986, pp. 11-16)[31]
The
National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism's database of identified terrorist organizations, which is compiled by official contractors and consultants to the United States government and is officially a project supported by the
Department of Homeland Security, identifies the JDL as a former terrorist organization.
[32]
While the JDL's website explicitly rejects terrorism, it has often expressed support for acts of vengeance in reprisal to Arab terrorist attacks on Jews.
[33] On October 26, 1981, after two firebombs damaged the
Egyptian Tourist Office at
Rockefeller Center, JDL Chairman Meir Kahane said at a press conference: "I'm not going to say that the JDL bombed that office. There are laws against that in this country. But I'm not going to say I mourn for it either." The next day, an anonymous caller claimed responsibility on behalf of the JDL. A JDL spokesman later denied his group's involvement, but said "We support the act."
[1]
On 25 February 1994,
Baruch Goldstein, a member of the JDL, opened fire on Palestinian Muslims kneeling in prayer at mosque in the
West Bank city of
Hebron, killing 29. On its website, the JDL writes: "Dr. Goldstein was a brilliant surgeon, a mild-mannered Yeshiva-educated man who was promoted to the rank of major in the IDF. He was warned by his superiors in the military to prepare an open field hospital in anticipation of another murderous attack by the hostile Arab population of Hevron during the Jewish festival of Purim. Many of these Arabs were standing outside Goldstein's synagogue in the Cave of the Patriarchs and yelling "Slaughter the Jew." Goldstein had lost 30 close friends in the last few years; they were murdered by Arabs in the Hevron-Kiryat Arba area. One of those was the son of his best friend, Mordechai Lapid; as Goldstein rushed to give the young man medical aid, he was held back by the Arabs on the scene and the young man died. Additionally, as there is proof that the Arabs were hoarding food and supplies in response to a Muslim call for a massacre on the Jewish holiday of Purim, we feel that Goldstein took a preventative measure against yet another Arab attack on Jews. We understand his motivation, his grief and his actions. We do not consider his assault to qualify under the label of terrorism because Dr. Goldstein was a soldier in a war zone who was faced by an imminent terrorist threat. We teach that violence is never a good solution but is unfortunately sometimes necessary as a last resort when innocent lives are threatened; we therefore view Dr. Goldstein as a martyr in Judaism's protracted struggle against Arab terrorism. And we are not ashamed to say that Goldstein was a charter member of the Jewish Defense League."
[34][35]
[edit] Relationship with Ruthless Records
During
Dr. Dre’s defection from
Ruthless Records there was a fear of violence.
Ruthless Records executives, Mike Klein and
Jerry Heller sought assistance from the JDL.
[36] Mike Klein, former Ruthless Records director of business affairs said "The Defense League offered to provide bodyguards to Eazy-E when Knight allegedly threatened him in the early 1990s." This provided Ruthless Records with muscle to enter into negotiations with
Death Row Records over Dr. Dre’s departure. While Suge Knight violently sought an outright release from Ruthless Records for Dr. Dre, the JDL and Ruthless records management were able to sit down with Death Row and negotiate a release in which the record label would continue to receive money and publishing rights from future Dr. Dre projects. It was under these terms Dr. Dre left Ruthless Records and formed Death Row Records with Suge Knight.
The
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched a
money laundering investigation, on the presumption that the JDL was extorting money from Ruthless Records. This led to JDL spokesperson
Irv Rubin to issue a press release stating "there was nothing but a close, tight relationship" between Eazy-E and the League.
Heller has speculated that the FBI did not investigate these threats because of the song "
Fuck Tha Police". Heller said, "It was no secret that in the aftermath of the Suge Knight shake down incident where Eazy was forced to sign over Dr. Dre,
Michel'le and
The D.O.C., that Ruthless was protected by Israeli trained/connected security forces."
[37]
[edit] Schism: October 2004-April 2006
After Rubin's death in November 2002, Bill Maniaci was appointed interim chairman by Shelley Rubin. Two years later, the Jewish Defense League became mired in a state of upheaval over legal control of the organization. In October 2004, Maniaci rejected Shelley Rubin's call for him to resign; as a result, Maniaci was stripped of his title and membership. At that point, the JDL split into two separate factions, each vying for legal control of the associated "intellectual property." The two operated as separate organizations with the same name while a lengthy legal battle ensued. In April 2005, the original domain name of the organization,
jdl.org, was suspended by
Network Solutions due to allegation of infringement; the organization went back online soon thereafter at domain name
jewishdefenseleague.org.
In April 2006, news of a settlement was announced in which signatories agreed to not object to "Shelley Rubin's titles of permanent chairman and CEO of JDL."
[38] The agreement also confirmed that "the name 'Jewish Defense League,' the acronym 'JDL,' and the 'Fist and Star' logo are the exclusive intellectual property of JDL." (Opponents of both groups claim that these are
Kahanist symbols and not the exclusive property of JDL. At this time, however, the logo is no longer in general use by the Kahanist groups.) The agreement also states: "Domain names registered on behalf of JDL, including but not limited to jdl.org and jewishdefenseleague.org, are owned and operated by JDL." Meanwhile, the opposing group formed B'nai Elim, which is the latest of many JDL splinter groups to have formed over the years.
[edit] Relationships with other groups
In 2011, the Canadian JDL organized a "support rally" for the
English Defence League featuring a live speech, via
Skype, by EDL leader
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. The event was denounced by the
Canadian Jewish Congress whose leader,
Bernie Farber, said he was "disappointed that the JDL would support an organization whose record in the U.K. is one of violence and extremism."
[39] "We join with all the leading British Jewish organizations in condemning the intolerance and violence that the EDL represents. It has never been the Canadian way to promote vigilantism," added Farber.
[40] In an opinion piece published following the event, Farber and CJC general counsel Benjamin Shinewald castigated the JDL stateing that, "By joining forces [with the English Defence League], the JDL condones the indefensible actions of violent extremists."
[41] The rally, held at the Toronto Zionist Centre, attracted a counter-protest organized by
Anti-Racist Action resulting in four ARA being arrested.
[40]
The Canadian JDL has also organized rallies in support of far-right Israeli politician
Moshe Feiglin[42] and Dutch far-right politician
Geert Wilders of the
Party for Freedom. They have also announced their support for the
Freedom Party of
Austria.
[edit] RCMP investigate JDL Canada for alleged bomb plot
On October 5, 2011 on the
Michael Coren show it was revealed that the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police had launched an investigation against at least nine members of the
Jewish Defence League in regards to an anonymous tip that the JDL was plotting to bomb the Palestine House in Mississauga.
[43] Meir Weinstein reported that many members of the JDL were interviewed extensively, at home and at work and suggested that the RCMP was surveilling their activity. Weinstein denied that the plot existed and accused the RCMP of political bias.
[edit] Chapters
[edit] JDL's Five Principles
The JDL upholds five fundamental principles, which as of July 2007 were listed on its website as:
- LOVE OF JEWRY
- pride in and knowledge of Jewish tradition, faith, culture, land, history, strength, pain and peoplehood
- DIGNITY AND PRIDE
- the need to both move to help Jews everywhere and to change the Jewish image through sacrifice and all necessary means—even strength, force and violence.
- IRON
- the need to both move to help Jews everywhere and to change the Jewish image through sacrifice and all necessary means—even strength, force and violence.
- DISCIPLINE AND UNITY
- the knowledge that he (or she) can and will do whatever must be done, and the unity and strength of willpower to bring this into reality.
- FAITH IN THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
- Faith in the greatness and indestructibility of the Jewish people, our religion and our Land of Israel.
The JDL encourages, per its principle of the "Love of Jewry", that "...[I]n the end...the Jew can look to no one but another Jew for help and that the true solution to the Jewish problem is the
liquidation of the Exile and the return of all Jews to Eretz Yisroel -- the land of Israel."
[44] The JDL elaborates on this fundamental principle by insisting upon an "immediate need to place Judaism over any other 'ism' and ideology and...use of the yardstick: 'Is it good for Jews?'"
[44]
The JDL argues that, outside of Jews, there are historically no people corresponding to the
Palestinian ethnicity. Writing on its official website, the JDL claims: "[T]he first mention of a "Palestinian people" dates from the aftermath of the 1967 war, when the local Arabic-speaking communities...were retrospectively endowed with a contrived "nationhood"...taken from Jewish history..." and that "Clearly, since Roman times "Palestinian" had meant Jews until the Arab's recent adoption of this identity in order to claim it as their land."
[45] On this basis, the JDL argues that "Zionism [should be] under no obligation to accommodate a separate "Palestinian" claim, there being no historical evidence or witness for any such Arab category," and considers Palestinian claims to be "Arab usurpation" of proper Jewish title.
[45]
[edit] Criticism of the JDL
The JDL has been criticized by the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for presenting a "gross distortion" of the real situation of American Jews.
[1] The ADL states that JDL's founder, Meir Kahane, "preached a radical form of Jewish nationalism which reflected racism, violence and political extremism".
[1] The ADL says that those attitudes were replicated by Irv Rubin, the successor to Kahane.
[46] The
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has added the JDL to its list of watched hate groups.
[47][48]
In its report,
Terrorism 2000/2001, the FBI referred to the JDL as a "violent extremist Jewish organization" and stated that the FBI was responsible for thwarting at least one of its terrorist acts.
[49] The
National Consortium for the Study of Terror and Responses to Terrorism states that, during the JDL's first two decades of activity, it was an "active terrorist organization."
[5] The JDL was specifically referenced by the FBI's Executive Assistant Director Counterterrorism/Counterintelligence,
John S. Pistole, in his formal report before the
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States.
[5]
At least two of the suspects in the 2010 murder of Said Bourarach appear to have ties to the French chapter of the JDL.
[50]
[edit] JDL Chairmen
According to the organization's official list of Chairmen or Highest Ranking Directors:
[51]
- 1968-1971 - Rabbi Meir Kahane, International Chairman.
- 1971-1973 - David Fisch, a religious Columbia University student, who later wrote articles for Jewish magazines and the book "Jews for Nothing."
- 1974-1976 - Russel Kelner, originally from Philadelphia. Formerly a US Army lieutenant trained in counter-guerrilla warfare, he moved to New York City to direct the JDL's paramilitary camp JeDeL, and later to run the national office as chairman.
- 1976-1978 - Bonnie Pechter.
- 1979-1981 - Brett Becker, originally from South Florida. He came to New York City to become chairman.
- 1981-1983 - Meir Jolovitz, originally from Arizona. He also came to New York City.
- 1983-1984 - Fern Sidman, Administrative Director.
- 1985-2002 - Irv Rubin, International Chairman.
- 2002–present - Shelley Rubin, Administrative Director (2002–2006); Chairman/CEO (2006–Present). (For information on a period of disputed leadership in that period, see Schism (Oct. 2004-April 2006) as well as JDL's commentary on the subject[52] on its Leadership page.
