Jewish Defense League (JDL)
The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is an organization founded in 1968 by a group of young Jewish activists who were concerned about the perceived deterioration of Jewish life in the United States. They felt that mainstream Jewish organizations were not adequately addressing the community's needs and were overly focused on broader civil rights issues. With the slogan "Never Again," the JDL aimed to raise awareness about anti-Semitism and advocate for the rights of Jewish people, particularly in response to the perceived threats reminiscent of historical violence against Jews.
Under the leadership of Meir Kahane, the JDL gained national attention in the late 1960s and early 1970s through high-profile demonstrations advocating for Soviet Jewry and pressuring the Soviet government to allow Jewish emigration. The organization later shifted its focus to promoting Jewish emigration to Israel and adopted increasingly militant positions, advocating for the expulsion of Arab residents from Israel. Over time, the JDL faced internal declines due to its radical ideology and involvement in illegal activities, leading to a substantial drop in membership.
By the 1990s, following Kahane's assassination, the JDL's influence waned significantly, and it was eventually classified as a terrorist group by the FBI. As of 2024, the JDL reportedly has no active chapters in the United States. This history reflects the complexities of Jewish activism, identity, and the ongoing challenges faced by Jewish communities in various contexts.
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Jewish Defense League (JDL)
The Jewish Defense League (JDL) was founded in 1968 by thirty young Jewish people who believed that the position of Jewish people in the United States was deteriorating and who also felt that the activities of established Jewish organizations did not meet the present needs of Jewish people. They argued that such organizations as B’nai B’rith, the American Jewish Committee, and the American Jewish Congress no longer served the interests of Jewish Americans because they focused too heavily on non-Jewish causes such as civil rights. The founders feared that overt expressions of Black anti-Semitism and the increasing impact of street crime against Jewish people indicated that the United States was experiencing something similar to the Nazi street violence that had prepared the way for the Holocaust. Using the slogan “Never Again,” the members of the JDL looked for ways to alert the world to what they perceived as a marked deterioration everywhere in the quality of Jewish life. Meir Kahane, an Orthodox rabbi, soon emerged as the leader of the JDL.
In 1969, the JDL attracted national attention by dramatizing the plight of Soviet Jewry in demonstrations before the Soviet mission to the United Nations and at other Soviet agencies in the New York City area. Their forceful picketing of the Soviet airline at John F. Kennedy Airport disrupted air travel between the United States and the Soviet Union. The JDL believed that agitating against American-Soviet sport and cultural exchanges and trying to disrupt trade between the two countries would embarrass the Soviet government and convince it to improve the position of Jewish people in the Soviet Union as well as end the ban on emigration from the country by Jewish people.
The JDL turned its attention to Israel in 1971 and began to urge American Jewish people to emigrate to Israel. Only by doing so, they argued, could American Jewish people recapture their religious zeal and offer effective resistance to anti-Semitism. There they could join with the Israelis in defending the land from attacks by the Palestinians. As Kahane studied the situation in Israel, he became convinced that the only solution to the problem was for Israel to expel all Arab people from the country. He explained his reasoning in his 1981 book, They Must Go. Shortly after publishing his book, Kahane moved to Israel with his family, founded the KACH political party, and was elected to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in 1984.
The high point in JDL membership was in 1972, when its membership reached fifteen thousand people. However, the shift in the JDL’s focus from the United States to Israeli politics, the increasing rigidity of its ideology, and accusations that the JDL had gone beyond militancy to illegal use of force, including bombings, disillusioned many of its members. Their numbers declined markedly. Kahane remained popular, and his speeches drew crowds and press coverage, but after he was assassinated in New York City in 1990, the JDL ceased to exert much influence on Jewish life in the United States.
The JDL continued to move to the far right and was deemed a terrorist group by the FBI in their report “Terrorism 2000/2001.” In 2024, the JDL had no active chapters in the United States.
Bibliography
Altschiller, Donald. "Jewish Defense League." Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Peter Knight. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003. 371–73.
“The Jewish Defense League.” ADL, 6 Feb. 2017, www.adl.org/resources/profile/jewish-defense-league. Accessed 11 Dec. 2024.
“Jewish Defense League.” Southern Poverty Law Center, www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/jewish-defense-league. Accessed 11 Dec. 2024.
Weisheit, Ralph A., and Frank Morn. Pursuing Justice: Traditional and Contemporary Issues in Our Communities and the World. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2015.
Zola, Gary Phillip, and Marc Dollinger. American Jewish History: A Primary Source Reader. Lebanon: Brandeis UP, 2014.