The trial of two members of the Jewish Defense League accused of participating in last year’s fatal firebombing of impressario Sol Hurok’s office is scheduled to begin soon. Jury selection in the federal court trial began today after U.S. District Judge Arnold Bauman yesterday denied all defense motions for a delay of the trial because of last week’s FBI-police raid on JDL’s Manhattan headquarters.
Sheldon Davis, Stewart Cohen, Sheldon Segal, and a fourth JDL member, Jerome Zeller, are charged with planting a firebomb in Hurok’s office on Jan. 26, 1972, which resulted in the death of a secretary and injury to 13 others. including Hurok. Zeller is in an Israeli jail awaiting the outcome of U.S. extradition proceedings against him. The defendants face maximum sentences of life imprisonment if convicted.
Mayor John V. Lindsay last week asked Police Commissioner Donald F. Cawley to undertake a full investigation of last Wednesday’s raid on JDL headquarters. The American Jewish Congress urged Lindsay last Friday to order an investigation of the raid because of conflicting reports over how it was conducted. There will be no Bulletin June 6 due to Shavuot.
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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.
