Board of Rabbis Denounces Jdl As Inimical to Cause of Jewry

The New York Board of Rabbis denounced the Jewish Defense League as a group which has “greatly harmed the cause of Jewry” by “its resort to harassment and violence.” The Board said the Soviet Union was “guilty of cruel persecution and unjust denial of rights in respect to its Jewish population” but that the JDL “has enabled the tyrant to assume the pose of the victim” and that it had given Soviet leaders “additional fuel to stoke the fires of their bigotry and an excuse to besmirch the name of the Jewish people and Zionism.” The Board declared that the JDL “has no official connection with the Zionist movement, that it contradicts the ideals of our religious heritage and that it represents only a tiny, misguided minority of the Jewish community.”