Joseph Schachter, 20, who formerly headed the Toronto chapter of the Jewish Defense League, has pleaded guilty in county court to exploding what his lawyer described as a “symbolic” bomb on the doorstep of Donald Andrews, a leader of the neo-Nazi Western Guard, in February, 1976. Judge Hugh Locke postponed sentencing until June 30
The explosion of the aluminum pipe-bomb blew out several windows but caused no injuries. Schachter’s lawyer, Edward Greenspan, said the youth, who is Orthodox, acted under severe provocation. According to Greenspan, his home had been ransacked and swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans smeared on the walls. In addition, synagogues in his neighborhood were desecrated with slogans such as “Gas the Jews,” Greenspan told the court. He said that Schachter was capable of manufacturing a for more destructive bomb but “kept it small and symbolic.”
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