The Jewish Defense League said yesterday that while it was not responsible for the attack Saturday night on a house used by the Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations, it “applauded all such actions aimed at freedom for Soviet Jewry.”
In a statement to the Jewish. Telegraphic Agency, the JDL attributed the attack as part of “an escalating campaign by Jewish activists against the growing atmosphere of pogrom in the Soviet Union.” Attacks on Soviet personnel and installations will continue as long as Soviet Jews are imprisoned or refused permission to emigrate, the statement said.
According to police reports, some time between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Saturday night, about a dozen shots were fired into a glass-enclosed sitting room of a building in the Glen Cove, Long Island compound housing Soviet Ambassador Oleg Troyanovsky. No one was in the house at the time of the attack.
A man saying he represented the JDL telephoned United Press International earlier yesterday and claimed responsibility for the attack. The JDL has staged several protests at the compound used by Soviet envoys to the United Nations.
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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.