Jewish Defense League
Founded by Kahane in New York City in 1968, JDL's self-described purpose was to protect Jews from local manifestations of antisemitism. According to Anti-Defamation League, Kahane "preached a radical form of Jewish nationalism which reflected racism, violence and political extremism" and those attitudes were replicated by Irv Rubin, the JDL successor to Kahane. In a 1971 interview, Bob Dylan made positive comments about Kahane. In Time Magazine, Dylan stated, "He's a really sincere guy. He's really put it all together." According to Kahane, Dylan did attend several meetings of the Jewish Defense League in order to find out "what we're all about" and started to have talks with the rabbi. Subsequently, Dylan downplayed the extent of his contact with Kahane.
A number of the JDL members and leaders, including Kahane, were convicted in relation to acts of domestic terrorism in the United States. In 1975, Kahane was arrested for leading the attack on the police outside the Soviet United Nation mission and injuring two officers, but was released after being given summonses for disorderly conduct. Later that same year, Kahane was accused of conspiring to kidnap a Soviet diplomat, bomb the Iraqi embassy in Washington, and ship arms abroad from Israel. His probation for a 1971 firebomb-making incident was revoked and Kahane was found guilty of violating probation and served a one year federal prison sentence. He also announced that the JDL planned to recruit a 150,000 member volunteer "army" of Americans to fight for Israel, even as such an "army" had no approval from the Israeli government. In a 1984 interview with Washington Post correspondent Carla Hall, Kahane admitted that the JDL "bombed the Russian mission in New York, the Russian cultural mission here in 1971, the Soviet trade offices."
Read more about this topic: Meir Kahane
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