The Jewish Defense League is the organization founded by the late martyr Rabbi Meir Kahane, Of Blessed Memory in the year 1968 in New York City to defend Jewish, rights, property, individuals, institutions and honor by any means necessary. The JDL today is under the dynamic leadership of Irv Rubin, a longtime associate of the late Rabbi Kahane and has its international headquarters in Los Angeles, California.
There is no issue facing the Jewish people today that the JDL won't tackle and unlike the so called "respectable" Jewish establishment organizations the JDL doesn't form commitees and study what needs to be done for years on end, thus wasting precious time and accomplishing absolutely nothing! The JDL takes concrete action to solve Jewish problems.
To better understand why JDL does what it does one must read the 5 principles of the JDL to get a better appreciation of our work.
The 5 principles of the JDL are:
• AHAVAT YISRAEL - LOVE OF JEWRY
The Jewish Defense League came into being to educate the Jewish people to the concept of Ahavat Yisrael... 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 Yisrael... the land of Israel. It sees the immediate need to place Judaism over any other "ism" and ideology and calls for the use of the yardstick: "Is it good for the 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 opressed and degraded masses of Eastern Europe during the holocaust over 5 decades ago. The Anti-Semite's hatred and contempt for 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 through 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 if 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 he has perpetuated. JDL wants to create a physically strong, fearless and courageous Jew who fights back. We are changing an image born of 2000 years in Galut, an image that must be buried because it has buried us. We train ourselves for the defense of Jewish lives and 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 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 G-D AND THE INDESTRUCTABILITY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
Faith in Hashem our G-d and in the greatness of the Jewish people, our Torah, our religion and our land of Israel is Bitachon. It is a faith that is built by our belief in Hashem... 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 Hashem our G-d and the permanence and survival of the Jewish people that in turn gives faith to 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 philosphy 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 Torah, the Talmud, in the teachings of our sages throughout the ages in Jewish practice throughout history the concepts of Ahavat Yisrael, Hadar Yisrael, Barzel Yisrael, Mishmaat Yisrael and Bitachon are hallowed. At the same time an eternal debt is owed to the Jews of our era who also recognized that these concepts are indeed Jewish and who fought the assimilated Jewish tide to put them into practice. We refer to the great Zev Jabotinsky, A"H, his followers and his movement of which we consider ourselves to be a spiritual part and sitting in heaven righteously alongside Jabotinsky is the founder and eternal spiritual leader of the Jewish Defense League, Rabbi Meir Kahane, ZT"L, HY"D. 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.
The JDL in New England is under the leadership of Michael A. Slomich.
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About JDL Founder Rabbi Meir Kahane, ZT"L, HY"D
Rabbi Meir David Kahane was born August 1, 1932 (28 Tammuz 5692) and was brutally murdered in cold blood by an Arab Terrorist, El Sayid Nossair, Yimach Shimo V'Zichro on November 5, 1990 (18 Cheshvan 5750).
As a youth he was active in Betar and met Zev Jabotinsky who was a guest at his parents home and a close friend of his father Rabbi Yechezkel Shraga Kahane.
Rabbi Kahane received his smicha - ordination as Rabbi - from the world famous Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn, NY.
He also earned an International Law degree from New York University.
Rabbi Kahane served as a pulpit Rabbi and teacher in NY in the early and mid 1960's. During that time he also was one of the editors of the Jewish Press, which was the biggest English speaking Jewish newspaper in the world. He worked as a correspondent for the Jewish Press until his tragic death.
Rabbi Kahane resided with his wife Libby in Jerusalem, Israel. They lived there from the time that they immigrated to Israel from the U.S. with their four children in 1971.
All of his children are active in preparing and publishing his books, writings and manuscripts along with his wife.
Rabbi Kahane was the author of many books on Judaism, Israel, Torah and politics. he wrote books in English and in Hebrew some of which were also translated into & published in Russian.
Rabbi Kahane was well known for his electrifying speeches in Israel, on U.S. campuses and in synagogues throughout the world. He was viewed as an eloquent, dynamic spokesman and orator, appearing frequently on radio and TV talk shows.
Rabbi Kahane founded the militant Jewish Defense League in 1968 to combat the rampant growth of anti-Semitism in the inner cities. At that time, the poor and elderly Jews were easy targets for Jew hating thugs. Rabbi Kahane rescued these abandoned Jews and changed the image of the weak and vulnerable Jew to one of a mighty fighter who strikes back fiercely against tyrants. Jew-haters around the world soon began to respect and fear the wrath and retribution of Kahane's Chaya Squad, a group within the JDL, which succeeded in instilling fear in the hearts of the would-be criminals against Jews.
During his lifetime Rabbi Kahane was a kind of thorn in the buttocks of the wealthy and entrenched Jewish establishment since his founding of the Jewish Defense League which demanded defense of Jewish poor and eldery in the inner cities of America.
The JDL went on to conquer other local issues and problems as well as global Jewish problems. The JDL was the first group to really bring world attention to the plight of Soviet Jewry. They did so by engaging in unconventional and often violent tactics which succeeded in highlighting the plight of millions of oppressed Jews, suffering behind the Iron Curtain. The JDL succeeded in moving the issue off of the back pages and on to the front pages, where it belonged. Kahane was the "Moses" for Russian Jewry. It wasn't long before the major Jewish establishment organizations were embarrassed and forced into action, after so many years of apathy and indifference.
His taking to the streets in the late 60's and his use of violence to draw attention to the plight of oppressed Jews in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere have all gained him the hostility of the do-nothing Jewish establishment who sat idly by decades earlier while 6 million Jews were butchered by Hitler's minions.
Russian Jews started to flow out by the hundreds of thousands, thanks to Rabbi Kahane's dedication and vision. But as Rabbi Kahane said, "more than what we did for Russian Jewry was what they did for the young and lost American Jewish youth who finally had a Jewish cause to fight for, and boy did they fight, without sleep and at a risk to their freedom they did that which their parents never did for their Jewish brothers and sisters who perished during the Holocaust."
Rabbi Kahane used the phrase "Never Again" which was first used by the organization at one of JDL's first press conferences by one of JDL's co-founders which did not mean that a Holocaust could never happen. It meant that never again would Jews stand idly by while their brothers cry out for their help.
Kahane was not only the founder of the JDL but it was also his ideological compass that set the goals to be acheived by the league.
The Rabbi wrote the JDL 5 principles which define what the role of a Jew in the diaspora is and what he must do for his fellow Jew.
Rabbi Kahane was jailed many times and was sentenced to prison terms for his actions related to the campaign on behalf of Soviet Jews.
Other famous causes which Rabbi Kahane fought for included Jewish identity and continuity. Far before the Jewish establishment realized that there was a problem - Rabbi Kahane was demanding that Jewish funds go for Jewish causes, primarily for Jewish education. He spoke out against intermarriage and assimilation among Jewish youth. He saved thousands of lost Jewish souls from spiritual destruction.
Aliyah to Israel was another key campaign launched by Rabbi Kahane. In fact, he was assassinated lecturing at an emergency Z.E.E.R.O. conference calling for the mass Aliyah of American Jewry. He directly convinced hundreds of Jewish families to make Aliyah.
Rabbi Kahane also pioneered the campaign to save Syrian and Ethiopian Jewry as well as the battle against cults and missionaries in the Holy Land. Rabbi Kahane dreamed of creating an independent Israel which would no longer fear the Gentiles. He dreamed of a state of Israel that would sanctify G-d's name through Jewish power and faith in G-d.
Although the Rabbi is no longer physically with us he lives on in spirit through his ideology and teachings as well as the rich legacy he left behind which include 2 Yeshivot, Yeshivat HaRayon HaYehudi in Jerusalem, Israel, Yeshivat HaRayon HaYehudi/HaRav Meir in Kfar Tapuach, Shomron, Israel and in the diaspora his best known and most famous legacy, The Jewish Defense League!
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