The leader of the militant Jewish Defense Organization, Mordechai Levy, has been released from jail on $35,000 bail, pending appeal of his conviction on an assault charge stemming from a shooting incident two years ago in New York’s Greenwich Village section.
Levy, sentenced April 11 in Manhattan Supreme Court to one-and-a-half to four-and-a-half years in prison, was arrested in August 1989 after opening fire on a former associate from his apartment window.
Bail conditions include that his passport remain revoked and he report once a week through his attorney to the District Attorney’s Office, said a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney.
Levy, who is featured on JDO handouts clenching a gun, formed the group in 1985 after deciding that the Jewish Defense League, founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane, was not militant enough.
Kahane, who moved to Israel and spent a year as a member of the Knesset before his party was outlawed under anti-racist legislation, was murdered here last fail.
Levy’s shooting incident apparently stemmed from the split between the JDO and JDL. The JDO leader claimed he opened fire in self-defense when threatened by Irv Rubin, who took over JDL after Kahane moved to Israel in 1985.
When Levy started shooting, after Rubin allegedly threw rocks at his apartment window, a wayward bullet injured a mechanic sitting in a van parked nearby.
Levy, who is in his late 20s, was tried on three counts of attempted murder, one count of first-degree assault, one count of attempted first-degree assault and one count of reckless endangerment, according to the D.A.’s Office.
Alan Schwartz, director of research at the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, said the JDO “has long advocated the use of arms” and added that the “vast majority of the community” of American Jews repudiates such behavior.
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.
