The Jewish Defense League today released the texts of letters it has sent to President Ford and Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, appealing for “an accelerated series of efforts to win complete freedom of emigration for Soviet Jewry.” The two letters both identical, were written, according to Dov Fisch, the organization’s associate director, “to bring an end to the violence against Soviet personnel and installations in this country.”
Citing recent acts of violence against Soviet facilities attributed to the Jewish Armed Resistance. Fisch wrote, “Those who believe that ‘clamping down on the Jewish Armed Resistance’ will bring an end to anti-Soviet actions in America are sadly mistaken and misguided.” He expressed the fear that “such ‘clamping down’ will increase their numbers, gain them new adherents, and inspire additional acts of violence by other cells within their group,”
Fisch concluded that the “one politically logical way to stop the JAR” would be for Ford and Kissinger to conduct “an increased effort…to win complete and unrestricted free emigration for Soviet Jews.” This, he noted, would “eliminate the source of friction now inspiring” the underground Jewish group.
The JAR has taken credit for the shootings at the Soviet Mission to the United Nations in Manhattan and the Soviet diplomatic compound in the Riverdale section of the Bronx; and for bombs at the office of Aeroflot, the Soviet airline; and Amtorg, the Soviet trade agency.
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.
