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The circumstances of <strong>the</strong> lawsuit had <strong>to</strong> do with statements<br />
made by <strong>the</strong> JSL concerning Elma Lewis's role in <strong>the</strong><br />
destruction of Bos<strong>to</strong>n's Jewish community during <strong>the</strong> years<br />
1968 <strong>to</strong> 1971. They were presented at a meeting hastily called<br />
by Bos<strong>to</strong>n's Human Rights Commissioner Emanuel Eaves.<br />
The JSL charged that in 1968 Elma Lewis walked in<strong>to</strong> a one-<br />
and-a-quarter-million-dollar building owned by Congregation<br />
Mishkan Tefila, which was being used as a religious day<br />
school, and threatened <strong>to</strong> burn <strong>the</strong> building down with <strong>the</strong><br />
children in it unless <strong>the</strong> building was turned over <strong>to</strong> her. The<br />
building, housing <strong>the</strong> Lubavitch Yeshiva, was indeed turned<br />
over <strong>to</strong> her for one dollar, and it was reported in <strong>the</strong> papers<br />
that it was a gift from <strong>the</strong> Bos<strong>to</strong>n Jewish community. The JSL<br />
fur<strong>the</strong>r charged that this created a dangerous precedent, for<br />
eventually <strong>the</strong>re was destruction by Black militants of Jewish<br />
businesses and <strong>the</strong> proliferation of crime directed against<br />
Jews. In March 1973, <strong>the</strong> case came <strong>to</strong> court in Bos<strong>to</strong>n<br />
Municipal Court, and we won <strong>the</strong> case. Witness after witness<br />
came up <strong>to</strong> testify <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> au<strong>the</strong>nticity and veracity of <strong>the</strong> JSL<br />
statements, fur<strong>the</strong>r accusing Elma Lewis of teaching hate, in<br />
her newly acquired building, <strong>to</strong> Black children and instruction<br />
for armed revolution.<br />
The firebombing of <strong>the</strong> house while <strong>the</strong> occupants were in it<br />
on Callender Street was only one of a series of incidents that<br />
afflicted Bos<strong>to</strong>n's Jewish community. That community was<br />
forcibly expelled over a period of years, from 1968 on.<br />
Synagogues were destroyed, Torahs were burned, and Jews<br />
were beaten mercilessly and robbed. Over 250 Jews were<br />
killed. The <strong>to</strong>tal figures of rapes, robberies and murders<br />
exceeded those of <strong>the</strong> Kishinev pogrom of 1904, and<br />
approximately 60,000 expelled exceeded that of forced exile of<br />
<strong>the</strong> 16,000 Jews from England on July 18, 1290.<br />
When <strong>the</strong> scourge of leftist militant Black Naziism<br />
threatened <strong>to</strong> engulf <strong>the</strong> Jews of <strong>the</strong> United States, myself and<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r kindred spirits who were veterans of <strong>the</strong> Zionist<br />
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