Rabbi Meir Kahane, National Chairman of the Jewish Defense League, was arrested last night on charges of harassment and verbal abuse, as the JDL resumed its harassment tactics of Russian diplomats which had been suspended last month. Rabbi Kahane’s arrest followed a formal complaint filed with the police by Vladimir Federov, the second secretary of the Soviet Mission, who charged Rabbi Kahane with verbal abuse. Rabbi Kahane was released by police after being issued a summons on the charges and is scheduled to appear in Manhattan Criminal Court on March 2nd to answer charges. JDL Executive Director Lawrence Fine said that all Russian diplomats who emerge from the Soviet Mission will be followed by squads of JDL members in what Fine termed “legal harassment.” He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the harassment will continue on a daily basis. The resumption of harassment tactics of Russian officials follows the announcement Sunday night by Rabbi Kahane that the group’s moratorium, begun January 19, was ended. Speaking before an audience of 400 persons who gathered at Hunter College to protest Soviet anti-Semitism, Rabbi Kahane declared: “The moratorium is over!” Fine explained that the moratorium had been ended because “We gave the Jewish Establishment a chance to “do their thing” for Soviet Jewry and saw no response. We feel that the threat to Soviet Jewry is as real as ever and the increasing danger of physical oppression to our Jewish brethren behooves us and obligates us as Jews to respond to their needs,” he said.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
