The secretary of the Jewish Defense League, Yosef Schneider, and JDL activist Yoel Lerner were sentenced yesterday by the Jerusalem District Court to four months in prison for their roles in the arson attack on a Christian mission on the Mount of Olives last Feb. Seven other JDL members received suspended sentences ranging from one to six months.
The fire at the International Center for Holy Scriptures on the Mount of Olives destroyed part of the archives and office records. Schneider and Lerner were convicted of “persuading and advising others to commit a misdemeanor.” The judges noted that the defendants were not criminals in the ordinary sense of the word, but persons whose anti-missionary zeal led them to commit a serious crime. Were it not for mitigating personal circumstances, the penalties would have been much heavier, the judges said.
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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.
