The Jewish Defense League said today it was investigating “certain leads” in connection with the powerful bomb explosion which seriously damaged the organization’s national headquarters in midtown Manhattan last Friday night. In a statement released today, the JDL said it “expects the perpetrators to be properly delivered their justice.”
No one was injured in the blast, which occurred shortly before midnight although one member of the JDL, Marcos Benzaquen, who was in the office, “escaped death by a few seconds” as he passed the area where the explosion occurred just before it blew out two walls and the front door of the 6th floor office, according to JDL national chairman Meir Jolovitz.
An unidentified woman telephoned the office of United Press International shortly after the blast and said: “At 11:57 on October 8, we bombed the offices of the Jewish Defense League because they are the real terrorists. Long live the Palestinians.”
Jolovitz said his organization has taken the call seriously and not as a prank, and said the JDL was working in cooperation with New York City police authorities and the FBI who are conducting the investigation. Jolo- vitz would not expand in detail on what leads the JDL was working on although he said he believed it was on act perpetrated by “leftist, anti-Israel elements, pro-Palestinians, of course.”
The statement released by the JDL, delayed because of the holidays, said: “Let it be clearly understood that the JDL’s efforts in exposing and combatting the growing anti-Semitic beast will not be deterred but indeed intensified.” It was the first incident of this kind at the JDL offices in 14 years.
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.
