You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Revisionist Betar and <strong>the</strong> Irgun, decided <strong>to</strong> join <strong>the</strong> Jewish<br />
Defense League. However, at <strong>the</strong> end of 1970, we left<br />
<strong>to</strong>ge<strong>the</strong>r as a group over what we felt were basic differences of<br />
philosophy with Rabbi Meir Kahane, though we feel that what<br />
he did for Soviet Jewry will go down in his<strong>to</strong>ry as one of <strong>the</strong><br />
greatest heroic acts of Diaspora Jewry. We formed <strong>to</strong>ge<strong>the</strong>r<br />
<strong>the</strong> JSL, which is affiliated with Herut and Betar.<br />
No sooner did Elma Lewis direct her wrath against me, than<br />
I threw <strong>the</strong> entire apparatus at my disposal through <strong>the</strong> JSL<br />
and our sister organizations Betar, and Herut USA and Israel<br />
in<strong>to</strong> battle. New England JDL also involved itself. We,<br />
<strong>the</strong>refore, started <strong>to</strong> scrutinize thoroughly <strong>the</strong> background of<br />
Elma Lewis and those Jews who supported her, and who<br />
aided in <strong>the</strong> destruction of Bos<strong>to</strong>n Jewry, and as we did this, a<br />
certain pattern began <strong>to</strong> emerge, which I was reluctant <strong>to</strong><br />
pursue initially, because it appeared <strong>to</strong> me that we were<br />
heading in <strong>the</strong> direction of a Joseph McCarthy witch hunt. For<br />
those in <strong>the</strong> Jewish community who were intimately connected<br />
with Elma Lewis had subversive backgrounds and were<br />
directly or indirectly connected with Communist or Marxist-<br />
Leninist Third World Coalition organizations. We knew, of<br />
course, from our experience in <strong>the</strong> cities, of how Red Chinese<br />
Maoists had worked <strong>to</strong>ge<strong>the</strong>r in spawning <strong>the</strong> Black Pan<strong>the</strong>rs<br />
who were openly professing Communist ideology.<br />
However, what we discovered <strong>to</strong> our chagrin was that most<br />
Jews who had backed <strong>the</strong> Black Pan<strong>the</strong>rs and similar<br />
organizations subscribed <strong>to</strong> similar philosophies, including,<br />
surprising <strong>to</strong> us, certain members of <strong>the</strong> Reform clergy in<br />
Bos<strong>to</strong>n, so we proceeded <strong>to</strong> investigate <strong>the</strong>ir backgrounds,<br />
one by one, in extreme detail. For example, we discovered<br />
that on <strong>the</strong> campus of Brandeis University, <strong>the</strong> Reform Hillel<br />
chaplain, Albert Axelrad, was pro-Black Pan<strong>the</strong>r and published<br />
supporting articles saying one could be anti-Zionist without<br />
being anti-Semitic; that Roland Gittelsohn of <strong>the</strong> Reform<br />
Temple Israel had aligned himself with Communist causes<br />
xiv