Mayor John V. Lindsay has asked Police Commissioner Donald F. Cawley to undertake a full investigation of last Wednesday’s raid on Jewish Defense League headquarters here by combined forces of the FBL NY City police and U.S. Treasury agents, a spokesman for the Mayor’s office said. The American Jewish Congress urged Lindsay last Friday to order an investigation of the raid because of conflicting reports over how it was conducted.
Theodore J. Kolish, chairman of the AJ Congress’ NY Metropolitan Council, stated in a letter to Lindsay that “despite our rejection of much of the philosophy and many of the tactics of the Jewish Defense League, we oppose any police action that violates constitutional guarantees directed against any group.”
Kolish noted that “the initial reports suggested the possibility that under the pretense of investigating the presence of explosives in the JDL office, the raiding forces destroyed property and seized files and other documents, including membership lists, to which the FBI, the Treasury and police were not entitled.” That-charge was made initially by JDL spokesmen. “At the same time, the officials responsible for the raid have denied any improper conduct. insisting that no files were taken and that the only damage done resulted from the need to obtain access to the office and search for explosives,” Kolish wrote the Mayor.
URGE POSTPONING TRIAL AGAINST JDL’ERS
The three-hour raid was conducted under a Federal warrant issued after a telephone warning to the FBI that explosives would be planted at the Soviet or Iraqi UN missions. No explosives were found at the JDL office, JDL spokesmen charged that the raid was intended to harass and intimidate the JDL from conducting demonstrations during the-visit of Soviet Communist Party Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev next month. “If there has been misconduct by police officials or if false charges have been made against them, appropriate action should be taken.” the AJ Congress letter said.
It appeared, meanwhile, that the raid might lead to a postponement of the trial of two JDL members accused of fire-bombing the offices of impressario-Sol Hurok in Jan. 1972 in which one person was killed. Bertram Zweibon, JDL attorney, filed several motions last Thursday with U.S. District Court Judge Arnold Bauman requesting a postponement on grounds that the raid might have prejudiced prospective jurors with regard to the JDL.
The trial of Sheldon Davis and Stewart Cohen is scheduled to begin tomorrow. Two other JDL members are implicated in the Hurok bombing. One of them, Sheldon Segal, has been severed from the trial and is expected to become a government witness. The other, Jerome Zeller, is in custody in Israel awaiting the outcome of extradition proceedings against him.
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.
