Five members of the Jewish Defense League from New York City were arrested in the White House Friday after they staged a brief sit-in in the Blue Room in the Presidential living quarters. The incident-occurred in the absence of President Nixon who was in Pekin, III. for the day to dedicate the Everett Dirksen Congressional Research Center. The White House declined to comment on the incident.
According to Saul Perl, a local JDL activist, the five arrested JDLers were taken to a Washington police station and booked on charges of unlawful entry. Perl, whose father, Dr. William Perl, is head of the JDL Washington section, described the five as of college age.
Perl said the JDL group entered the White House with a tour but once inside the Blue Room left the line of sightseers and staged a demonstration. They chanted slogans such as “Mr.Nixon stop the slave trade” and “Do not forget the Soviet Jews, Mr. President.” Earlier the JDL released a statement charging that Soviet Communist Party Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev has reneged on his promises to allow free emigration from the Soviet Union.
Three of the demonstrators were identified as Steve Thomoshow, Debbie Kohn and Mara Wendroff. The names of the other two were withheld because they are juveniles.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
