Meir Kahane speaking at UCLA 4/5/1971

I would like to welcome you to the first program sponsored by the committee to free Soviet jewry here at UCLA we have the distinct pleasure of now presenting to you the co-founder and head of the Jewish Defense League Rabbi mayor Kahani thank you just two weeks ago in Washington 1347 Jews sat down on the streets and went to jail now Washington has seen protests in the past and there have been many many Jews that have gone to Washington in the past to protest for a great many things and what makes this protest different from all other protests the strange thing about this protest was that Jews went to Washington two weeks ago to protest and go to jail for Jews and the Messiah will yet come and it's important for each and everyone here that was not in Washington and didn't go to jail to understand why what happened why this thing happened and something about the incidents that took place on a day which I believe was one of the great days in the history of Jews of this country to begin with the sight of 5,000 Jews sitting down in the streets stretching from K and 16th streets down to Lafayette Park in the shadow of Mr Nixon's home and singing Isel and not moving when order to get up and sitting and as each cop came over and touched each young young Jew and said you're under arrest and his Jew got up and again shouted never again and walked to the police buses and as the buses filled up from inside came the chance of bring more buses in the sight of one particular family a father a mother and four children getting arrested and it's quite true the family that gets busted together stays together it was a tremendous sight and I don't know who had Greater Joy in great anas the parents or their children and I do know one thing that those children who went to jail with their parents for Soviet Jews will never never ever forget that day that day when their parents stopped just telling them what to do but did it with them those are great moments in any person's life now why why did 1347 young Jews decide to pass up the NBA game of the week and go to Washington to see some other sites sites not usually seen by most Jewish tourists the inside of Washington prisons they sat down on K and 16 streets two weeks ago because 30 years ago their parents didn't they were 30 years late 30 years too late nobody in this room was alive in 1939 when a ship sailed out of Hamburg Germany the St Louis and on it were 930 Jews they were lucky Jews they were among the last Jews that were that were ever able to get out of out of Germany and they went to the one country in the world which was which was ready to take them in that was Cuba and when they reached Havana they learned that their entry visas would not be honored and the Cuban government told them that they'd have to go back they'd have to go back home home to Hitler and there began a tremendous drama as 930 Jews in a ship 90 mil from Collins Avenue in Miami Beach where other Jews were having a ball 930 Jews sat and waited for someone to do something for them in our Jewish leadership the leadership of all all the organizations went to Washington DC to speak to Franklin Roosevelt our president Franken Rosevelt for whom all Jews voted every Jew voted for Roosevelt every Jew cried for Roosevelt when he died you can look high and low in in Israel you won't find monuments for franklen Roosevelt they went to Roosevelt and they said to him Mr President 930 Jews would like to live and if they're sent back they're going to die and c and can you allow 930 Jews into this country and he said I'd love to but I can't there's a quota system and the German quot is filled and so they asked him to mortgage the quota to Future years and he said that would be bending the law and Franken Roso of course never bent the law so he said no they'll have to go back and they Did Franken Rosevelt sympathized with them but he said he couldn't do anything so he went home when he went home our Jewish leaders went home when our Jewish leaders went home 9930 Jews went home I know rabbis nice decent types who got arrested in Selma Alabama when it wasn't a question of gas Chambers when it was a question of civil rights and human dignity and that was a good thing I know rabbis went to jail for civil rights in Selma I don't know of a single Rabbi that went to jail for 930 Jews who were going to be killed I don't know of a single Rabbi who when Franken Roosevelt said no decided that he was not going to accept that no I don't know of a single Rabbi who picked up the telephone and called his colleagues and said gentlemen out of the pulpits and on and on to the White House and let's get a thousand rabbis and chain ourselves to the White House Gates nobody not one nobody did anything and I know what happened four years later when World War II broke out and all the sudden Jews realized that Adolf Hitler meant exactly what he had said and that those Jews who in the 1920s and 1930s those crazy paranoid Jews who used to run around saying Hitler means it get out of Europe weren't so paranoid and all of a sudden we Jews learned in 1943 about aitz and we knew there was an aitz we knew that there was a a place on this Earth every day not every week not every month every day 12,000 Jews died every day 12,000 Jews were gased in aitz efficiency in aitz was was excellent remarkable the Germans don't just do things they do things well 12,000 Jews every day were brought in by the cattle cars and 12,000 other Jews left aitz the easy way we Jews knew about aitz let no Jewish leader say that he didn't know about aitz there are only two types of people on this Earth who claim that they didn't know about aitz at that time the Germans there and Jewish leaders here and they're both liars we knew about a aitz we knew about it from people that had been there and had escaped knew about it from men like Rabbi Mel do Weiss Mandel who wrote letters to Geneva who wrote letters to Jews in erit Israel who wrote letters to London and who gave them a simple concept of how to stop this he said bomb The Rail lines bomb the airlines leading aitz bomb the death camp area and you'll save a million Jews and Jewish leaders went to Franken Rosevelt and said Mr president we'd like you to save a million Jews and Franken Roosevelt who always liked to think in terms of Jews said fine how do we do it and they said Mr President bomb The Rail lines and Franken Roosevelt whose planes during World War II used to roam this globe bombing everything that moved said we can't do it for technical reasons that was the reason that he gave technical reasons when a president tells you that he can't do it what do you do you go home after all a president wouldn't lie not the Jews who voted for him so the president went home and the Jewish leaders went home and two and a half million Jews died in aitz now I know leaders of the American Jewish Congress who went to Mississippi as Freedom Writers and who had no qualms about breaking the law in Mississippi and who went to jail proudly now I don't know a single Jewish leader who decided to call 100,000 Jews into the streets of Washington and to sit down on K and 16th streets or on Pennsylvania Avenue nobody did this no Jewish leader cared enough to do it why that's the question why is it that Jewish leaders are unfeeling that's not true that is not true Jewish leaders do feel then why didn't they do what had to be done it's because we Jews are AF frightened people we're afraid we're afraid of something called anti-Semitism and so when Stephen wise the uncrowned pope of the Jewish people in those days heard from Franklin Roosevelt the following disastrous words don't make this a Jewish War because because you'll create anti-Semitism that was enough create anti-Semitism that is the greatest horror that can possibly phas Jews so when in 1971 you hear Jews say don't be militant on the Soviet Jewish issue because you'll make things worse for Jews there don't believe them because what they're really saying is be careful of what you do because otherwise you'll make things worse for us here that's the hangup the fear of what will they say what will they think what will the non-jew think and the Jew in the galut in Exile in his insecurities and in his Hang-Ups and in his complexes sits daily and worries about what will the non-jew think that is the origin of his respectability respectability is the last Refuge of a fearful person you want us to go to the White House you want rabbis to go to the White House and chain themselves to the White House gates for Jews you want American Jewish Congress and ADL leaders and Comm commit leaders and 590 leaders to go down into the streets and get arrested and break the law that's no way for nice Jewish boys to behave and they don't do it because what will they think what will they say it's time for Jews to stop worrying about what will non-jews think because that paralyzes the Jew into inaction on behalf of his brothers and his sisters then respectability buries us and it's time for us to stop worrying about winning the love of the world we have a terrible need a neuronic need to be loved and to have the sympathy of the world the state of Israel two years ago learned an interesting lesson about world sympathy how one wins it and how one loses it two years ago Israel sent its Commandos to violate international law and and to go to beut airport on a Saturday night to make havd over 13 Arab airplanes and that night and that night the state of Israel lost the sympathy of the world 15 to Nothing Was the vote in the UN you don't get better than that the Pope bemon the fate of 13 airplanes and Israel lost the sympathy of the world that it had gained with such great difficulty one week earlier at Athens airport when a Jew was killed and so that for all those that have a need to be loved is the formula that's the formula if you really want to be loved here it is if a Jew is killed you'll get sympathy and if two Jews are killed you get more sympathy and if please God you work really hard and you hit the jackpot with six million then a whole bag of goodies sympathy and plaques and monuments and eulogies and kades and yite and yar and Willie brand will go to Warsaw and kneel in front of a monument and cry for you this is sympathy and this is the price you pay for sympathy le' eshkol the late prime minister of Israel put it well when following a second condemnation of Israel by the UN I forget which particular one that that was he told a press conference gentleman he said do you know had we lost the war had we lost it the eulogies over the Jewish state would have been among the most beautiful of all time imagine the picture all over the world parliament's Rising for 2 minutes of silence NE 2 and half million more gun he said instead we called a cabinet meeting to discuss the question shall we live and after heated debate we voted yes so we fought and we won and they condemn us for this we prefer it that way it's time for Jews to understand something before you can win anyone's love you've got to have their respect and nobody gives you respect you win respect first of all by having self-respect and all those Jews who March for every cause in the whole world except the Jewish cause and who claim that they respect other peoples and love other peoples are liars because no one can respect anyone else until he first respects himself and no one can love anybody else until he first loves himself and this is something for each and every Jew to learn that it's time to come home it's time to come back to Jewish roots it's time to come back to Jewish Pride it's time to understand that for a Jew Jewish is beautiful this is the concept it's time to understand that other causes will find people Marching for them but when it's a Jewish problem when it's a Jewish crisis who marches for the Jew who fights for the Jew who gives a damn for the Jew nobody but another Jew I watched the demonstration in Washington for an oppressed people the Soviet Jews and I looked to see who else was there who among all the peoples for whom we March and whom we bleed who was there nobody was there nobody but Jews and learn a lesson from it because if we fail to we guarantee ourselves a second aitz here it's time to come home home it's time for a Jew to feel Jewish Pride not too many years ago there lived a Jew Zev jabotinski one of the great Jews of our time or any other time and one of the tragic Heroes and jabotinski went around speaking to Jews of Hadar Jewish Pride he spoke to the Jews in the Polish stle and in the ghettos in Yes Virginia we had ghettos too the real kind we had ghettos and we had suffering pums and we had young Jews whose backs were bent and whose heads were bowed and who accepted a p grum as something natural the sun rises and the sun sets a a p grum comes it goes and we lick our wounds and we count our dead and we go on and jabotinski spoke to them Pride a Jew even in poverty is the son of a prince whether a servant or a surf you have been created the son of a king these were the words that he spoke to to these Jews and he said to them Jews it's not a Mitzvah to be beaten where does it say in our heritage that you have to be shot at and not shoot back where does it say that violence is unje who says that violence is unwish and who says that a Jew must die like a dog and be beat beaten who says these things Jewish leaders say these things violence is not violence is not Jewish violence is unje these are the concepts that you hear from Jewish leaders whose Jewish background and education was arrested somewhere at the age of 13 instant experts on what is Jewish they tell us what is Jewish these people whose Concepts stem not from Jewish sources but from Liberal Concepts and that is not always the same thing unwish to turn the other cheek it's true that's in the Bible that's true you've been reading the wrong Bible a Jewish concept comes from a Jewish source and from nothing else a Jewish source and Jewish sources speak quite differently our Jewish [Music] leaders and our Jews who of course send their children to Hebrew school at kanuka time and tell them to emulate those great Jewish Heroes the makim the makab the mabes these were good Jews right these were of course Apostles of nonviolence Masada we climb Masada and our hearts swore with pride as we consider those Jews who met the Romans there with petitions and there was once a Jew named Moses Moshe rabenu that is his title Moses our teacher our teacher he teaches us things what does Moses our teacher teach us what does this Moses who is who was not a member of jdl but a good Jew an establishment Jew by this time what did this Moses teach us in the Jewish Bible a story is told of a man named Moses who went out to his people his people to Jews and they beheld a remarkable sight an Egyptian smiting a Jew now Moses ran quickly not to create a committee to study the root causes of Egyptian anti-Semitism but Moshe went and he did the following thing those are the words of the Bible and he smoked the Egyptian some Jews may like this some Jews may not like it it may be an unwish thing to Smite an an Egyptian something which has become a part of the Jewish habit over the years but whether we like it or we don't like it it is a Jewish concept and those Jews who speak of Jewish Concepts must accept those Concepts whether they like it or not and when the tal says in bra on page 48 Amud the second side for those who wish to make sure that I'm not lying that if one comes to slay you slay him first some Jews do get uptight we never did dream that this is a Jewish concept listening to certain rabbis sermons but that's true that is a Jewish con ccept and there is a Time For Peace and there is a time for war and that's not from the jdl principles that's from the Bible so violence is not a good thing indeed it's a bad thing and it's always a bad thing and it's never a good thing but sometimes it's a necessary thing and all those Jewish leaders and all those Jewish rabbis and all those young Jews who recognize the right of violence on behalf of freedom in Angola and in mosambi and Antarctica all those young Jews who recognize that right and not the right of Jewish violence and all those young Jews who recognize the right of having a National Liberation movement in the third world but don't recognize that right for Jews there is something fraudulent about those people there is a right of violence for Jews when there is no other way and we Jews have a Jewish National Liberation movement too a legitimate one and a rightful one and perhaps far more rightful than others and it's called Zionism and no one has to apologize for that Liberation movement and I'm tired of seeing pamphlets and leaflets and articles put out apologizing for our right to our Liberation movement and our own state does Pakistan apologize for its state or Afghanistan for its state or Ghana for its state no and they don't have to and we don't either and if the world likes it it likes it and if it doesn't like it up against the wall and that's [Applause] it it's only the Jew that is asked to make a concession make a concession Mr Mr Rogers tells us and Mr Nixon tells us make a concession we Jews have made many many such things in 1947 we accepted a partition of our land erit Israel and we willingly gave up 90% of the historical boundaries of erit Israel and we gave it up willingly for peace and for the right to have a little tiny bit of land for ourselves and the Arabs said no and the Arabs gambled on on War when you gamble sometimes you win sometimes you lose they lost and we made a concession during that war 6,000 Jews fell unnecessarily in that war 6,000 Jews died that was a concession to Mr Rogers and the Arabs and the Kremlin and everyone else that was a concession and in 1956 we again held out our hand in peace and we said Peace and the Arabs gambled again on two billion dollar worth of Soviet arms and when you gamble sometimes you win sometimes you lose they lost again and we again made a concession 600 young Jews died that was a concession and we took Sinai as a e to make sure that there would never again be 600 Jews dying and Mr Eisenhower and Mr Dulles told us give it back and Mr javitz told us give it back don't worry trust them there were a lot of Uncle Jakes around so we gave it back and they said don't worry now there is a peacekeeping force it'll keep the peace until 1967 and again we held out our hand in peace and this time the Arab said no we're gambling again and this was the Arab of pre June 4th 1967 this was Alat of pre June 4th in those days nobody spoke of a democratic and Multinational and non-racial pal Palestine they learned that later on when they were beaten in those days fat was speaking very very differently of pushing Jews into the sea and I remember quite quite well the speech of the head of the PLO from Aman on June 3D when he said I don't believe there will be a single Jew Left Alive and the Jews said let's have peace and the Arabs said no and they gambled when you gamble sometimes you win sometimes you lose and baby did they [Music] lose a concession 700 Jews died that was a concession no more apologies no more concessions we're tired of it we're tired of having to make a concession to live a concession to have a state and we're tired of having young Jews having as their campus Jewish Heroes Fidel and Chay and ho ho ho and not understanding and not knowing Heroes of the Jewish National Freedom Movement men like do gruner and you go to a young Jew and say dove gruner what's a dove gruner kanes what is a kanes who ever heard of kanes whoever heard of do gruna and how should they know of it where do they hear of of these people in their synagogues in their homes in their schools whoever sits down and teaches a young Jew Jewish pride and of a national Freedom Movement and of people like gruner and senes and others people who were part of the National Liberation movement of haav Yun of Lei and who fought and died there were Jews in erit Israel in the 1940s who fought the colonialist imperialist British at the time that the Arabs were playing footsie with the Nazis they were men like do gruno who went to The Gallows real live honest to goodness Heroes that had they come from Afghanistan or Laos or had they been named the Baran brothers would have been real honest to goodness live Jewish Heroes but nobody knows of these people because all they were doing was fighting for a Jewish National Liberation movement and when the imperialists Hang Jews that's nothing to write home about how should they know anything else what is the education of the young Jew in America we take our young Jews to a Hebrew school at the age of 11 his mother takes him by the hand because his father is too busy working and takes him to a hebu school not God forbid to make him Jewish let's not get carried away but so that in two or three years hence he will make some caterer rich and happy and this is the goal this is the goal of Jewish Education here and the young Jew sits for two years awaiting that great moment when his zadi and Bubby will be flown in from Brownsville or the Bronx and perhaps he may be fortunate he may be fortunate he may perhaps at one point have his Rabbi or his teacher say to him you know you Uncle everyone laughs because everyone knows that there are no more Jewish children named yanala you know Gordon or Scott or whatever the the latest American Jewish name is you know Gordon a Jew a Jew doesn't eat bacon that says it says so in the Torah this is a revelation to little Gordon who who that that very morning so uh little little children are are really very very nice they're nice they're nice kids and if the rabbi tells you something you go home when you're age 10 or 11 and you say to your parents you know the rabbi said that we that we can't eat bacon tomorrow morning and thus Begins the American Jewish way of death his parents seat little Gordon and they said to him Gordon baby we not send you there for that and Gordon walks away and his parents walk away satisfy that one more obstacle in the raising of little Gordon has been overcome but of course it hasn't little children are no fools you you don't fool children they're bright and perceptive and little Gordon understands what has been told to him he understands the dichotomy in the American form of Judaism he understands the shame and the fraud and the hypocrisy so he'll play the game for two more years there's money to be made but in the end when it's over when it's over for little Gordon when he has finished that huge feast it's all over every little bit of it is over for him what does he think back on from When shall he get Jewish Pride from this farce and from this sham Jewish Pride on the contrary it's something to run from it's something to put down it's something to flee and he does but because there's a genetic need apparently for young Jews to March for a cause he'll March for cause and he'll look for a cause and if it's not a Jewish cause he'll look for a non-jewish cause or an anti-jewish cause but a cause and so when I go out to the suburbs and speak to the parents of all the little Gordons who are now big Gordons and who are Marching for Alat and they say Rabbi what's wrong with our children what's wrong with our children that's what's wrong right there because when do G A fought when theun do you know what the Ben in 590 was saying about them the same things they say today about other Jewish groups that have buried respectability they say that's un Jewish fighting shooting throwing bombs that's not the Jewish way that stains the Jewish moral code of honor and then they went back to bevle Hills if you want a young Jew to have pride you've got to you've got to recognize what a young Jew wants he doesn't want you to give him anything he's tired of it he's sick of it he wants you to ask something of him he says ask for me to sacrifice ask for me to take part in a cause I want to get busted finally for Jews that's what he wants that's what jdl gives him that's for sure and that's why 1347 young Jews went to jail singing and with pride and with shining eyes because finally somebody said to them go to jail for Soviet Jews go to jail for Jews go to jail for Jewish pride 590s of this country don't understand this they don't understand it they're not of that mentality and that's why you don't have Jews that's why we may not be as big as the American Jewish Congress but we have youth we have young people in their thousands Soviet Jewish question that is the question of our times we may not save Soviet Jews but Soviet Jews are doing a tremendous job of saving American Jews because they've given us a cause and they've given us some meaning to be Jewish and I'm telling you that we don't have time we don't have time on the Soviet Jewish question don't believe that the only problem here is National cultural genocide that's not true there is a danger of a physical threat to Soviet Jews it's something that we Overlook and it's because of of this that we believe that we have the luxury to perpetrate fiascos like Brussels because we believe that we have time we we send 750 Jewish leaders thousands of miles at Great public Jewish Jewish expense to sit for three days and resolve that Soviet Jews shall be free we don't have time for that nonsense you don't have to take 750 Jews to Brussels for that they can sit home and resolve the same thing there is a physical danger to the Jews of the Soviet Union it's the kind of a danger that we escaped just barely 18 years ago when in 1953 Joseph Stalin revolutionary hero of the masses following the doctor ploted Drew up lists of hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews to be sent to camps in Siberia and God was good to us Stalin died but who is to say that it can't happen again and indeed the probabilities of it happening again are very very great consider carefully what the Soviet Union sees and what it hears when it listens to 30,000 Soviet Jews dancing outside the Moscow synagogue and it hears them shouting long of Israel what does the what does the kemin see and what does it hear it hears 30,000 Soviet citizens saying Long Live that fascist state whose Pilots shoot down our Pilots because Jewish Pilots are much much better Pilots than Russian pilots and what do the Soviets he what does the Soviet colonel in the O office here when he watches as a young Soviet Jew comes in and says I want to go to Israel and he says why do you want to go to Israel and he says because comrade I have an uncle in Ramadan and I cannot live unless I see my my uncle and this Colonel knows that he has 12 uncles in Moscow that he can very very well well live without seeing this this other uncle but that his real reason is to go to Israel and in six months time be in the in sahal Israeli Army and be fighting who be fighting him and the Soviets cannot abide this and they cannot stand this and for 18 years they have been weak there's been a weak government there but what will happen tomorrow and who can say that tomorrow there will not be a stronger government and a stronger Kremlin and if tomorrow they do take Jews and they do become physical on Jews can we stand a second crisis of moral conscience in 30 years How can any Jew say I sat twice in 30 years and I was silent don't get worried about being militant against the Soviet Union there are three and a half million Soviet Jews and a large portion of those Jews want to be free and for 47 years from 197 to 1964 we didn't have the decency to hold what one single Street protest in America not one protest in 47 years and I realize that it takes time for for Jewish groups to make up their minds but 47 years is a long time and it's time to break that silence don't get uptight when you read about Soviet diplomats being pushed around it's not so terrible because it's the only way it's the only way to take the Soviet Jewish question off the back pages and put it on page one where it belongs and if today there are Soviet Jews getting out at an unprecedented rate it's not because of petitions and it's not because of the Brussels conference but it's because certain Jews decided to take the Soviet Jewish problem and make it the Richard and Nixon problem and Richard Nixon doesn't worry about Jewish problems but boy he loses sleep over Richard Nixon problems and this is what happens when Soviet diplomats are harassed and this is what happens when as I understand I read in the times that uh Soviet cause were firebombed in Washington and this is what happens when I understand I read the times that Soviet buildings were bombed this is what happens it suddenly becomes an international problem between two superpowers neither of neither of which wants this the United States and the USSR are building bridges to East and West a dayon is being built over the cries and over the bodies of Soviet jewry and no one and no one wants these Bridges to fall down and that's why there are Sal talks and space talks and trade talks and cultural talks what happens when the bhoy comes here what would have happened had the booy come here what happens when they come here why do the Soviets send the booy or moev here not because they're interested in your cultural level but because it's a political tool it's a political weapon because nobody can walk inside and watch the B and walk out feeling quite as badly about Russians as when they walked in and that's what the Russians want that's why there is no booy coming and this is why we want to cause tension to take from the Russians what they want much much more than they want to keep Jews prisoners we want to make them pay a price for what they want and that price is Soviet Jews and they're beginning to pay a small price they want to pay a small price they want to buy us off cheaply and they won't but bear in mind that only if he CED out and only if you do outrageous actions will that Soviet Jewish question be on page one and if it's not on page one it won't be solved because nobody saws problems that he doesn't hear about and nobody heard about the Soviet Jewish question and now there isn't a farmer in Iowa that doesn't know about it and I'd like to finish and I'd like to I'd like to finish but I'm a rabbi rabbis go on and on uh and I will finish with a word to you that are at this campus and I would like to take part in a Liberation struggle for Soviet Jews and in a concept of Jewish Pride that says Jews come first for Jews not that there's no second or third or fourth but number one for Jews is Jews we are setting up chapters here and we'd like you to join and we'd like you to come up afterwards and to sign up to have a write on kind of jewishness on this campus and I'd like to finish with one little story We Jews who sing and shout Isel the people of Israel lives don't really understand the greatness and the depth of those three words this story May perhaps let you really know the greatness and the indestructibility of the Jewish people when the Roman Emperor Titus this when the Roman Emperor Titus destroyed the second temple and exiled the Jewish people from their Homeland he came back to Rome and he built an arch which he called the Arch of Titus and on it he engraved pictures of the Jews going into Exile and vessels from the Holy Temple and he cried out judia capta Judas captured Judah scattered there are no more Jews and indeed at that moment Jews were scattered added to the four to the Four Winds and the Roman Empire stretched from the middle of Asia to Britany and the years passed and the centuries passed and all of a sudden there was no more Roman Empire but there were still Jews Hanging On by their fingernails a tenacious people obstinate disgustingly so and in 1943 there was no more Roman Empire there was all that was left was a city called Rome in 1943 the streets of Rome echoed to the sounds of marching feet the British ath army had conquered Rome and as part of the British eth army was something known as the Jewish Brigade made up of Jews from erit Israel the new Jew that's not true he wasn't the he wasn't the new Jew that was a resurrection of the old Jew who for the benefit of Jewish leaders Once Upon a Time used to fight Once Upon a Time his name was Joshua and Gideon and Samson and David and sa and the makim and all the others and these old Jews marched under the Arch of Titus and when they finished marching they took red paint and they painted on the base of that Monument of that archel and that's the meaning of jdl when it looks the world in the eye and it says never [Applause] again if there are people thank you if there are people that have that have to leave I would really really like people to come up here and to sign up but meanwhile I'm going to be here for her questions and you can ask anything you want in whatever way you would like to ask it yes standing up and back yes right i' like to add on to that is if for a period inre go simply that worldress communist part the first of all let me say this to [Music] you that those figures that you quote are really in great great conflict and of that there's no question but I can tell you that it's not a question of 180 Jews getting out every single single week I can tell you that last year that last year you didn't get an average of 180 Jews getting out a week that's for sure that's for sure not at all not it it wasn't even close it wasn't even close that's not true it's not true I was in Israel too and I've spoken to the people too it's not so within the last three months more Jews got out of the Soviet Union than all last year and that is true now I'm not going to say for one minute that that in any way satisfies Us in no way that's no big deal it's no big deal if 50 Jews got out daily or 100 Jews got out daily that's no big deal it's only if every Jew who wants to leave gets out that's a big deal and we in no way are satisfied with what's happening now and this is why in Washington every single day the private homes of Soviet diplomats we managed to get hold of the residences the private homes of the uh addresses of the private homes of Soviet diplomats in Washington and we pick of them every day legally at midnight and this is why we sat down in Washington even after all this great news was coming out of 100 Jews on Monday and 150 Jews on on Thursday we're not satisfied with that but I will say one thing this nonsense about Jews getting out because of this part party Congress is nonsense because this Exodus this major kind of Exodus started not in March and not in February but in January now I'm not going to tell you that it will keep up I don't know I don't know how the Soviet mind works and I'm not interested in how that mind mind works I just want Soviet Jews out there is a trial that's starting today of Soviet Jews and I don't know what will what what will come about from that trial I only know that because of Jewish voices being raised whether more militant or less militant but because finally the silence was was broken because of that Jews have started to get out and I'm not saying that jdl did it what I am saying is that jdl and other groups that were not silent have been a gat fly to other Jewish groups to moderate Jewish groups to suddenly start doing things that they never used to do and suddenly you find moderate groups doing some things which otherwise they would have never done now for example this evening we're holding a midnight vigil at the summer White House and if you people would like to come and let the president know that we're interested in visiting him not just in Washington but also at the summer White House here we we would like very very much for you people to give up one night on a nonviolent and peaceful midnight vigil this evening and if you'd like to come just come up here right afterwards and you can then find out where and when and who and what furthermore on Wednesday at 12:00 noon in Los Angeles at May Company Fairfax and Wilshire May company has found it necessary to start accepting reservations for AA flot the Soviet Airline uh there will be a protest led by several Jewish Jewish groups and I believe that if you have a class on Wednesday at 12 it's a Mitzvah to cut it and be there yeah would to remind you yes when you either you lose yes or win yes yes I remind okay right on and you're going to keep on [Applause] losing sir sir let me say this to you for 23 years the Jews have said erit Israel has got to be the home of two peoples an Arab State and a Jewish State and we still say it and if you think that by turning us down if you think a generation that has the stench of aitz in its nostrils is going to be worried about what you say mister you don't know the Jew at all you want to fight baby you can't win you can't win we're the winners if you want peace you'll have peace yeah yes I don't your concept of that war and mine are very very different that's very very right that's very very right now you now if you have if you have anything else to ask ask it and then I'll answer it are you are you finished with that question fine now you've now finished at least now it's an ad hoc end okay I'm going to now answer you if you're not happy you can ask it again after I have finished the answer okay now that miserable war in Vietnam is a war between two sides with little to choose from and no time did jdl say that Saigon is any bargain key and two are no Bargains it's a dictatorship undemocratic a miserable kind of government but Hanoi is no better that's for sure what are you nervous gentlemen I'll be happy to hear anything you have to say when I finish but don't interrupt me I am not your College [Applause] president now Hanoi is no better we Jews understand what it means to have a victory for a communist state whether it be of the Moscow block or the Ping block or of any other other block so don't tell me that Hanoi is fighting there for Liberation if you're telling me that both sides are bad you're right that's for sure I remember a state called Poland in 1939 which was a a fascist state where Jews used to have their beards ripped out by the roots but I also know that Jews urged Britain and France to fight for that little fascist State not because they liked it but because they understood what would happen if the Nazis one we have no love for Saigon but we took this stand because we understood what would happen if little countries good or bad went under I know there's a difference between Israel and Vietnam one is a dictatorship and one is a democratic State you really are nervous aren't you Arab listen to me you've got to [Applause] learn you've got to learn what the Democratic method means you've got to learn what the Democratic method means so why don't you sit down and shut up [Applause] okay don't you people realize that you are signing up members for us by this action in any case if your friends will let me answer answer you I assume that they're your friends though you're you're in you're in rough company the fact of the matter is that we understood that that which protects little countries good or bad whether you think so or not but which little countries do know was us power now the United States wasn't fighting there for a democracy that's baloney they were fighting there to make sure that a communist threat was stopped now you may think that that's good or that's bad that's not the point that's why they were there if there are 25,000 Soviet combat troops in the Middle East now it's because the Soviet Union knows that thanks to the peace movement the American Army is not going to fight not only in Vietnam but anywhere else that's why we said fight there not for democracy that's baloney but fight to stop a power which is going to take over a small country good or bad because we knew what would happen to other small countries if the US didn't fight there and I emphasize again I have no love for those kayas and Saigon at all none at all I wish to God there would have been no war but we understood what would happen in 1971 back in 1968 and if the US Army and if the US government would understand that if you don't fight for bad little countries you still have to fight for good ones we wouldn't have come out backing that war but we understand what happens in the American mind the George Putnams of this of this country they don't see the difference that you see or that I see all they know is that the goddamn Jews got us out of Southeast Asia and now they want want us to fight for Israel we're not going to fight and we understood that now you may think that this is good reasoning or bad reasoning all I ask of you is to understand that not all people that back that war were fascist types that there were a lot of decent people who held a very different view of that war than uh you do and I hope that that answers your question yes pardon in in what yes yes yes mhm all right now I want to ask you before before all of you people clap where did you hear that I was an a to him I want to know where you heard it now the New York Times that's the answer right the New York Times with which excuse me a second you asked the question you finished are you finished with the question good now I'm going to finish the answer now the New York Times which otherwise is a lacky and running dog of the capitalist pigs right on is right but this you believe but this you believe now that's a [Applause] lie man you guys are so screwed up it's [Applause] unbelievable now I'm telling you and telling each and everybody here that that is a lie I never worked for that miserable Senator or for uak or for the CIA one hour in my life and it's a filthy lie and I'm not responsible for what the paper that prints all the news that Fitz [Applause] Prince yes how do you know what I've done and how do you know what constitutes liel I'm an attorney and I want to tell tell you that that doesn't constitute liel yes yes de 30th New York City screaming out your name and dis were you there yes I well I was too and Mr we were two separate rallies and I'm telling you that you're making a mistake and I'm trying to be nice about it we never have and we never will do such a thing now if you are saying that among the general chance and shouts which many many people chanted which many many people chanted that there were people who felt that since I was and since I just several days earlier had been arrested and since have been charged with a felony by mix by Mr Nixon's grand jury if you thought that it was improper to shout this and not interrupt nobody interrupted anything then you have a right to feel that that is wrong there were many many many chance shouted there were many many people there that shouted slogans over and over again not just jdl there was a relatively hand there was a relative small small group group there that were noticeably jdl and I don't know if at a uh rally of left groups if suddenly a group of panthers would have shouted free free Bobby if you would have gotten so uptight bear in mind excuse me that I did go to jail for Russian Jews and that there was a little bit of a tie in with that and that rally and bear in mind that this was in the middle of our 100h hour vigil for Russian Jews I really think that if that's the worst thing that we've done and if you do feel that there were a number of our people who did shout this perhaps in the middle of some speaker which I didn't hear then let me apologize for those people I can guarantee you that it was not done by jdl as such and I certainly do believe that you know that every single group my have some people that don't always act in the nicest way I'm quite sure that if you belong to some group not every single person in that group always does the kinds of things you think are nice if that happen it's a bad thing I was there I didn't see it happen but again if it happened it was a bad thing and we and we will we will try not to have our uh people do this again okay time for yeah we have time for one more question one last time for two more questions we have really time till 1:30 uh I'd like to go from from side side K yes yes first of all I'm being disbarred all right okay secondly I really I I would really hope I would really hope that you really don't think that I would ever play games with the lives of young young people none of our people at any time is ever told you have to do this on the contrary we strongly urge people that if you are going for for the kind of a life an occupation profession in which you might be in danger of losing out on that think very very carefully and the choice is then yours pardon first of all what I would recommend to you is the following that if you want to be a lawyer or a doctor be a lawyer and a doctor in the one country where Jews should all live in the land of Israel and when you come to Israel and say I was in jail for Russian Jews you might not even have to take the bar exam okay what yeah you're right except that P yeah except that we have we have been we have a precedent that per se in fact there is a case on point accusing someone of having a tie with uak is not liist per se in New York state I don't know why but that's the way the court said it yes yes Mr Mr putam is quite interesting he's in fact he's unreal yes he was yes he announced that well no no let me let let me make make it clear all right fine I in no way share the politics of George putam Mr putam holds views that I would not share it's that simple however Mr puam does have a redeeming quality he has immense power and influence with with Mr Nixon and government which Jews desperately need if you want to help Soviet Jews and if there's any Jew in this room who feels that he cannot sit down with someone with whose views he differs even if he knows that that person can help Jews that I'm telling you quite honestly he's not a very good Jew if you're a radical and a Jew in the end you've got to say what am I first am I first a radical am I first a Jew and my yach stick when it comes to Jews is is it going to help the Jew Mr putam can help the Jews much much more than Senator Jacob javitz can because if senator javitz calls up the White House the line is always busy and if Mr javitz tells Nixon that it's day rest assured that Mr Nixon runs down pulls down the blinds and puts on the lights but if George putam tells him something Mr Nixon listen because he needs putam if he needs putam then putam is the kind of a person that can help us and if I can help Soviet Jews or any Jew I'll sit down with Mr George putam or with hoi Min I would have sat down H all right I think we do have time for one more question yes yes yes but louder please well that that's a a good a good question on which to on which to end then it's an important one probably the biggest one today the question was what about anti-Semitism in this country is it growing isn't it growing and what can Jews do about it let me tell you one thing and I'll state it and I'll restate what I said before it is a part of the principle of jdl the major principle that the one place where a Jew can be safe and live as a Jew is in the land of Israel and this is why we push Aliyah as the major program now having said that and having said that we appeal to the Jews of this country to understand that this country is on a powder keg it is torn apart by racial violence it is poisoned by this miserable war in Vietnam there is a social problem there there is a growing economic crisis here all which bodess ill for this country for the Democratic process and for all peoples and for Jews and Jews are like all other people in this country but more so we get it first we're the scapegoat because if you read the right-wing papers the number one enemy is the Jew we are responsible for the Communists and the blacks and the earthquakes we are responsible for all the the for all the things that the that the hard hats fear I'm telling you that the way out is for Jews to go to Israel and to stop running from Brooklyn to Queens to Nassau kind to suff County to the lighthouse at montalk point and then and time is to go to Israel now but Jews are not going that's I know they're not going going to go Belair is nice there are no problems in bellia so that's why jdl differs a little bit from Zionist groups from official Zionist groups we say go and we push Aliyah and we have Aliyah programs but at the same time we say knowing that most Jews are not going anywhere they're staying here there has to be a Jewish group that defends Jews we don't want to build Israel at the expense of Jewish bodies here we I don't want to see a single Jew die here so that some other Jews will understand that we have to go so we do things and it is imperative to make sure that the Democratic process remains in this country and to fight extremist groups from radical right and radical left because we understand that the ultimate danger to Jews comes from the radical right but we also know that the fears which give birth to the radical right strength come from other groups what makes the great moderate mass that cheers for Mr for Mr agnu become afraid and uptight and tense that they're afraid of all sorts of things they're afraid of a breakdown in the Democratic process and a breakdown in the Democratic process means the end of Jews here too believe me that if extremism grows in this country then there is no Jewish future so we attempt to understand that there are many things wrong in this country that must be fixed and must be changed and must be changed by iCal methods through a democratic process through a democratic process these are things that we try to do I don't know what will happen in this country in five or 10 years I know one thing that if the economic crisis grows and if enough blue collar workers are out of jobs things will be very very bad and more than that I really can't can't say except that for you young people here consider carefully living in the Jewish State that's number one thank [Applause] you