The Five Principles of the Jewish Defense
AHAVAT YISROEL -- LOVE OF JEWRY
The Jewish Defense League came into being to educate the Jewish
people to the concept of Ahavat Yisroel -- one Jewish people, indivisible
and united, from which flows the love for and the feeling of pain of all
Jews. It sees the need for a movement that is dedicated specifically to
Jewish problems and that allocates its time, resources, energies and
funds to Jews. It realizes that in the end -- with few exceptions -- 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. It sees an immediate need to
place Judaism over any other "ism" and ideology and calls for the use of
the yardstick: "Is it good for Jews?"
HADAR -- DIGNITY AND PRIDE
JDL teaches the concept of Hadar -- pride in and knowledge of Jewish
tradition, faith, culture, land, history, strength, pain and peoplehood.
Hadar is the need to have pride in Judaism and not allow it to be
disgraced and defiled by beating and desecration of Jewish honor. This is
the concept that the great Jewish leader Zev Jabotinsky attempted to
instill in the oppressed and degraded masses of Eastern Europe 60 years
ago. The anti-Semite's hatred and contempt of the Jew is an attempt to
degrade us. It is an attempt to instill within the Jew a feeling of
inferiority. It is an attempt that, all too often, succeeds in promoting
Jewish self-hatred and shame in an attempt to escape one's Jewishness.
Hadar is pride. Hadar is self-respect. Hadar is dignity in being a Jew.
BARZEL -- IRON
JDL upholds the principle of Barzel -- 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. The Galut
image of the Jew as a weakling, as one who is easily stepped upon and
who does not fight back is an image that must be changed. Not only does
that image cause immediate harm to Jews but it is a self-perpetuating
thing. Because a Jew runs away or because a Jew allows himself to be
stepped upon, he guarantees that another Jew in the future will be
attacked because of the image that he has perpetuated. JDL wants to
create a physically strong, fearless and courageous Jew who fights back.
We are changing an image, an image born of 2,000 years in the Galut, an
image that must be buried because it has buried us. We train ourselves
for the defense of Jewish lives and Jewish rights. We learn how to fight
physically, for it is better to know how and not have to, than have to and
not know how.
MISHMAAT -- DISCIPLINE AND UNITY
Mishmaat -- discipline and dedication -- creates within the Jew 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. It was the
lack of discipline and Jewish unity that led continually to the destruction
of the Jewish people. It is Jewish unity and self-discipline that will lead to
the triumph of the Jewish people.
BITACHON -- FAITH IN THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF THE JEWISH
PEOPLE
Faith in the greatness and indestructability of the Jewish people, our
religion and our Land of Israel is Bitachon. It is a faith that is built by
our belief in the Jewish G-d of Hosts and the incredible saga of Jewish
history that has seen us overcome the flood of enemies that have arisen
to wipe us out in every generation. It is this faith in the permanence and
survival of the Jewish people that, in turn, gives faith in the ultimate
success of the Jewish Defense League. No matter how difficult, no
matter how impossible the task may seem -- if it is a good task, if it is a
holy task -- it will succeed, because it must.
The sources for the philosophy and actions of the Jewish Defense League are
Jewish sources. They stem from the wellsprings of Jewish tradition and have
their roots in Jewish teachings. In the Bible, in the Talmud, in the teachings of
our rabbis throughout the ages, in Jewish practice throughout history, the
concepts of Ahavat Yisroel and Hadar Yisroel and the practices of Barzel
Yisroel, Mishmaat Yisroel and Bitachon Yisroel are hallowed. At the same
time, an eternal debt is owed to Jews of our age who also recognized that these
concepts are indeed Jewish and who fought an assimilated Jewish tide to put
them into practice. We refer to the great Zev Jabotinsky, his followers and his
movement of which we consider ourselves a spiritual part. And sitting in
Heaven righteously alongside Jabotinsky is the founder and forever spiritual
leader of the Jewish Defense League, Rabbi Meir Kahane. May the Almighty
grant us the understanding to recognize and act on our problems forthrightly
and the courage to go out to battle against our enemies in the face of all
obstacles -- from within and without.
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