A melee broke out today at Brooklyn College involving hundreds of black and white students shortly after Rabbi Meir Kahane, national chairman of the Jewish Defense League, delivered a speech at the Student Center on the plight of Soviet Jewry. Eyewitnesses said the fighting erupted after the speech when Rabbi Kahane and about 40 of his followers entered a room usually occupied by black students. Words were exchanged and fists began flying. Scores of police hurried to the campus and formed a chain separating the two groups. One student was arrested. One campus guard was reportedly hit on the head by a chair and was taken to Kings County Hospital. Rabbi Kahane was quoted as saying he and his followers would return to the college tomorrow.
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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.
