National director of the Canadian branch of the Jewish Defense League, Kahanist activism
Marvin Weinstein (born August 18, 1957)[1][2] known as Meir Weinstein and previously known as Meir Halevi[3] is the former national director of the Canadian branch of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) and in 2017 claimed to also be the leader of the JDL in North America. He announced on July 9, 2021, that he was leaving the JDL.[4]
Weinstein had been leader of the Canadian JDL since 1979, used the pseudonym "Meir Halevi" into the 1990s. He joined the JDL at the age of 20, after reading Meir Kahane's book Never Again. Previously an assimilated Jew, Weinstein began attending synagogue regularly, began studying Jewish texts and became more involved in the Jewish community as a result of reading Kahane's book. He founded the Toronto JDL branch in 1979.[5] He told the Jewish Press in 2008: "I will always be a loyal disciple of Rabbi Kahane. Our ideology is based on the Jewish Idea as taught by Rabbi Kahane."[6] Under his leadership, the Canadian JDL has held annual commemorations honoring Kahane's life and ideas.[3]
In 1980, Weinstein visited Israel for the first time. During his stay in Kiryat Arba, he had planned on visiting Beit Hadassah with a group of Jewish students and worshippers. Weinstein's plans fell through at the last minute and he did not join them. Later that evening, the Jewish group fell victim to a terror attack, known as the 1980 Hebron attack. Weinstein noted the Arab population was rejoicing at the terror attack, which he escaped by chance.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Weinstein and the JDL were involved in identifying alleged Naziwar criminals living in Canada as well as neo-Nazi activity.[7] The group became dormant until Weinstein revived it in 2006 in the wake of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.[2] The revived JDL has focused on opposing what it views as growing radical Islamic influence and anti-Israel activity.[2]
Weinstein is a trained bodyguard and served in the Israel Defense Forces.[3] Professionally, Weinstein owns a window-installing business.
In Alberta
In the mid-1980s, Weinstein travelled to Alberta on several occasions in an attempt to organize the Jewish community against antisemitic activity in the province - particularly, against the activities of Aryan Nations organizer Terry Long. He received national media attention in 1986 when he picketed "AryanFest" when it was held on Long's Alberta compound.[8] The previous year, Weinstein had held meetings in Edmonton in an attempt to organize a JDL branch there. During one of the meetings he shouted down Rabbi Haim Kemelman, leader of Edmonton's Beth Shalom synagogue, after he criticized the JDL's methods and called Weinstein a "carpetbagger" and alleged he was trumping up a non-existent crisis of antisemitism in an attempt create an Edmonton JDL branch. "Those kinds of rabbis, those kind of Jews, in the end they dig a grave for Jews," said Weinstein who accused the rabbi of being "rude and extremist". "You see, I am silenced," the rabbi was reported as saying to a reporter after the incident, adding, "that is the JDL."[9]
In 1986, an editorial in The Globe and Mail criticized Weinstein (under his pseudonym of Meir Halevi) for claiming that the Alberta government was aiding neo-nazi Terry Long: "to say, as Mr. Halevi does, that this group exists with the assistance of the provincial government is simply a lie. And to advocate, as he does, any means legal or illegal to destroy the Aryan Nations group is irresponsible."[10]
On Baruch Goldstein
In 1994, using his pseudonym of Meir Halevi, Weinstein commented on the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre committed by Baruch Goldstein in Hebron saying "[a]s long as the Arab public celebrates every attack on a Jew, our organization does not condemn the attack. It condemns the Israeli government for not providing adequate protection for settlers." He added that Kach does not advocate physical attacks on Palestinians but that it wants all members of terrorist organizations expelled from Israel.[11]
Ernst Zündel
In May 1995 Meir Weinstein and US JDL leader Irv Rubin were caught and apprehended by police[12] while trying to break into the property of Ernst Zündel, a Holocaust denier. No charges have ever been laid in the incident.[13]
Protest at Palestine House
In 2002, during the Canadian JDL's inactive period, Weinstein organized another group called the United Israel Action Committee which organized two demonstrations outside of Palestine House in Mississauga, Ontario. At the second demonstration the pro-Palestinian counterdemonstrators were joined by 20 children. Palestine House president Rashad Saleh said the demonstrators "should be the ones who should be ashamed. (They) are coming here and terrorizing our little children."[14] Weinstein argued that the children had been brought out as "pawns" by Palestine House and claimed that the organization his group was picketing used its charitable status to fund the Palestine Liberation Organization. "The people standing across the street are those who support the murders of Jews," said Weinstein to a reporter.[14]
2007 Newmarket mosque dispute
In 2007, Weinstein helped organize a town hall session to raise questions about the connections of a mosque in Newmarket, Ontario with Zafar Bangash. The controversial imam has promoted sharia law and vigorously defended Iran's fundamentalist regime and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement. The mosque spokesperson denied that Bangash will have anything to do with the day-to-day running of the mosque.[15]
The meeting was criticized as "one-sided" because no officials from the mosque were invited. John Thompson, president of the Mackenzie Institute, was one of the featured speakers at the town hall. He told the Toronto Star that he was invited by Ron Banerjee, one of the organizers, but would have "called in with the flu" had he known Weinstein would be there because of his association with the JDL.[9]
Weinstein found himself on the defensive at the meeting, according to the National Post, after he implied that a town councillor had accepted a bribe. Newmarket resident Brian Patterson said of Weinstein: "I don't think he has any credibility at all. To suggest at a public meeting that any public official in this town has taken a bribe without any evidence of that is outrageous."[16]
In his arguments against the mosque, Weinstein told the audience of about 30, "[i]f, God forbid, an Islamic state ever came to fruition in this country, we would be doomed. Is that what you want in this country?"[16]
Clash with Paul Fromm
A 2007 demonstration against Paul Fromm while he was on his way to a disciplinary hearing at the Ontario College of Teachers resulted in the arrest of two JDL activists who were accused of assaulting the controversial far-right figure. Weinstein, himself, was not reported to have been involved in the incident. He told the Globe and Mail that the arrests were "not going to be a setback for us and we're determined to see to it that Nazis will not teach hate in classrooms."[17]
George Galloway
In 2009, Weinstein's JDL issued an "open letter" to the Canadian government calling for the British politician George Galloway to be barred from entering Canada. The government did so and Weinstein appeared on Britain's Channel 4 News to debate with Galloway over the issue. During the interview, Weinstein accused Galloway of being a "proxy agent" of Hamas and Hezbollah. When Galloway stated that he would be speaking in Canada through "other means", electronic if necessary, Weinstein threatened that "we will see to it that the Canadian government will be monitoring every individual and organization that will have anything to do with it" and that he and the JDL "will be looking into these organizations that invited him… their links to terror groups as well" and that he will "see to it that the Canadian Government will be monitoring every individual and organization that has anything to do with George Galloway".[18]
"Death to the Arabs"
On April 3, 2009, CBC Radio's The World Report carried a profile on Weinstein which asserted that a link was discovered on Weinstein's Facebook page to a chat group called "Death to Arabs". Weinstein, who does not speak Hebrew, told CBC the link had been sent to him in Hebrew and he added it not knowing what it said.[19]
English Defence League
In 2011, Weinstein's Jewish Defence League organized a "support rally" for the controversial English Defence League featuring a live speech, via Skype, by EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who uses the alias Tommy Robinson. The event was denounced by the Canadian Jewish Congress whose leader, Bernie Farber, said he was "disappointed that the JDL would support an organization whose record in the U.K. is one of violence and extremism."[20] "We join with all the leading British Jewish organizations in condemning the intolerance and violence that the EDL represents. It has never been the Canadian way to promote vigilantism," added Farber.[21] In an opinion piece published following the event, Farber and CJC general counsel Benjamin Shinewald castigated the JDL stating that, "By joining forces [with the English Defence League], the JDL condones the indefensible actions of violent extremists."[22]
The rally, held at the Toronto Zionist Centre, attracted a counter-protest organized by Anti-Racist Action resulting in four arrests.[21]
RCMP investigate JDL Canada for alleged bomb plot
On October 5, 2011, on the Michael Coren, show it was revealed that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had launched an investigation against at least nine members of the Canadian JDL in regards to an anonymous tip that the JDL was plotting to bomb Palestine House in Mississauga.[23] Meir Weinstein reported that many members of the JDL were interviewed extensively, at home and at work and suggested that the RCMP was surveilling their activity. Weinstein denied that the plot existed and accused the RCMP of political bias.
Violence outside Washington DC AIPAC conference
Weinstein organized a group of JDL members and supporters to go to Washington, D.C. in March 2017 to counter-protest against anti-Zionist groups protesting the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference, resulting in several brawls. At least two Canadian JDL supporters have been indicted as a result of alleged violence outside the conference. Yosef Steynovitz was charged with one count of assaulting a man with a dangerous weapon, one count of assaulting a second man, and one count of assault with a hate crimes enhancement for causing significant bodily injury in relation to the beating of Kamal Nayfeh, a 55-year-old Palestinian-American community college teacher who was reportedly walking to the conference when he was attacked.[24] Rami Lubranicki, 59, of Howell, New Jersey was also charged. On April 20, 2018, a second Canadian JDL supporter, Brandon David William Vaughan, was arraigned in relation with the Washington D.C. assaults the previous year.[25] Weinstein claimed that his members acted in "self-defence" saying of the beating victims "They found out that it’s not wise to lay not even a finger on any of us. Anyone who’s going to try and raise a fist to us, push us and assault us, we would be glad to enforce a citizen's arrest when there’s some semblance of cooperation from the aggressor. Unfortunately, we had to resort to a certain level of force, and we made it very clear the days of Jews being attacked and being docile are long over."[26] However, there is no evidence that the victims had engaged in any form of violence.[26]
Departure from JDL
In July 2021, several weeks after the JDL was involved in a melee with Palestinian activists following a pro-Palestinian rally, Weinstein dissociated himself from the JDL and formed a new organization called Israel Now.[4]
Related Research Articles
The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a far-right religious and political organization in the United States and Canada. Its stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary"; it has been classified as "right-wing terrorist group" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) since 2001, and is also designated as hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. According to the FBI, the JDL has been involved in plotting and executing acts of terrorism within the United States. Most terrorist watch groups classify the group as inactive as of 2015.
Meir David HaKohen Kahane was an American-born Israeli Orthodox ordained rabbi, writer, and ultra-nationalist politician who served one term in Israel's Knesset. Founder of the Israeli political party Kach—whose legacy continues to influence militant and far-right political groups active today in Israel,—he was convicted of multiple acts of terrorism in the United States and in Israel.
Baruch Kopel Goldstein was an American-Israeli mass murderer, religious extremist, and physician who perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an incident of Jewish terrorism. Goldstein was a supporter of the Kach, a religious Zionist party that the United States, the European Union and other countries designate as a terrorist organization.
Irving David Rubin was a Canadian-born American political and religious activist who served as chairman of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) from 1985 to 2002. He committed suicide in jail when awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy to bomb private and government property.
The Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, also known as the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre or the Hebron massacre, was a mass shooting carried out by Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli physician and extremist of the far-right ultra-Zionist Kach movement. On 25 February 1994, during the Jewish holiday of Purim, which had overlapped in that year with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Goldstein, dressed in Israeli army uniform, opened fire with an assault rifle on a large gathering of Palestinian Muslims praying in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. He killed 29 people, including children as young as 12, and wounded 125 others. Goldstein was overpowered and beaten to death by survivors.
The Jewish Defense Organization (JDO) was or is a Jewish militant group in the United States. It is unclear if it is still functioning.
Jewish extremist terrorism is terrorism, including religious terrorism, committed by extremists within Judaism.
Zafar Bangash is an Islamic movement journalist and commentator in Toronto, Canada. Bangash is Director of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT), and is former president of the Islamic Society of York Region, a suburb of Toronto. He also served as Imam at the Islamic Society of York Region's Mosque and community centre in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He relinquished his responsibilities with the Islamic Society of York Region in 2019 to devote full time to research in Seerah (life-history) for the Prophet of Islam. He is a former editor of Crescent International newsmagazine, and a Trustee and formerly assistant director of the Muslim Institute, London, where he worked with Dr. Kalim Siddiqui (1931–1996), the founder of the Muslim Institute and Leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain. Bangash is also a co-founder of the Muslim Unity Group.
The Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) was formed in 1967 to represent the interests of Arab Canadians with respect to the formulation of public policy in Canada. It presently consists of over 40 member organizations.
Yossi Klein Halevi is an American-born Israeli author and journalist.
Terror Against Terror was a radical Jewish militant organization active in Israel that openly espoused the ideology of perpetrating terrorism and committed several violent attacks directed at Palestinians, ranging from vandalism to mass shooting to murder. The group consisted of many Jewish-American settlers living in Hebron who considered themselves acolytes of Rabbi Meir Kahane, leader of the Kach organization which had established the group. Kahane had publicly advocated since 1974 that Arab terrorism should be met with Jewish terrorism, hence TNT. The group began committing violent acts against Arabs in 1975.
Official chapters of the Jewish Defense League as well as national and regional offices:
Judaism's doctrines and texts have sometimes been associated with violence or anti-violence. Laws requiring the eradication of evil, sometimes using violent means, exist in the Jewish tradition. However, Judaism also contains peaceful texts and doctrines. There is often a juxtaposition of Judaic law and theology to violence and nonviolence by groups and individuals. Attitudes and laws towards both peace and violence exist within the Jewish tradition. Throughout history, Judaism's religious texts or precepts have been used to promote as well as oppose violence.
Lehava is a far-right and Jewish supremacist organization based in Israel that strictly opposes Jewish assimilation, objecting to most personal relationships between Jews and non-Jews. It is opposed to the Christian presence in Israel. It has an anti-miscegenation focus, denouncing marriages between Jews and non-Jews forbidden by Orthodox Jewish law. The group has over 10,000 members. In 2024, the United States placed Lehava and its leader, Bentzi Gopstein, on a sanctions list for their role in fomenting Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, labeling Lehava "the largest violent extremist organization in Israel."
Kahanism is a religious Zionist ideology based on the views of Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League and the Kach party in Israel.
Kach was a radical Orthodox Jewish, religious Zionist political party in Israel, existing from 1971 to 1994. Founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1971, based on his Jewish-Orthodox-nationalist ideology, the party earned a single seat in the Knesset in the 1984 election, after several electoral failures. However, it was barred from participating in the next election in 1988 under the revised Knesset Elections Law banning parties that incited racism. After Kahane's assassination in 1990, the party split, with Kahane Chai breaking away from the main Kach faction.
Ben-Zion "Bentzi" Gopstein is a political activist affiliated with the far-right in Israel, a student of Meir Kahane, and founder and director of Lehava ("Flame"), an Israeli Jewish anti-assimilation organization. He was a member of the Council of Kiryat Arba, an Israeli settlement where Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir also resides, between 2010 and 2013. In November 2019, he was indicted on charges of incitement to terrorism, violence, and racism. In April 2024, he was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of State and the European Union.
Meir Ettinger is an Israeli Kahanist activist, extremist and terrorist who is known for leading the Hilltop Youth, a group that pursues the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, conducts punitive price tag attacks on Palestinian villages, and targets Muslim and Christian sites. Ettinger has called for the demolition of the secular state of Israel, and its replacement by a religious society based on Biblical principles.
Sicarii (Daggermen) was a Jewish terrorist group active in Israel that took responsibility for a series of terrorist attacks between 1989 and 1990 on Palestinians and Jewish political and media figures sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians. They named themselves after the ancient Sicarii rebels, a group of Jewish zealots who opposed the Roman occupation of Judaea.
↑ Linda Deutsch, "U.S. Jewish militants charged in bomb plot: Los Angeles mosque, congressman's office were intended targets", Ottawa Citizen, December 13, 2001
1 2 Bob Mitchell, "Protest leads to shouting match", Toronto Star, April 15, 2002
↑ Freed, Dale Anne, "Newmarket mosque meeting 'one-sided'; Executive member says leadership not invited to meeting, adding they don't share controversial imam's views", Toronto Star, February 26, 2007
1 2 Tom Blackwell, "'Town hall' targets Newmarket mosque: Jewish group leading protest has checkered past of its own", National Post, February 26, 2007
↑ Mahoney, Jill, "Activists confront controversial educator: Demonstrators charged as scuffle erupts over ex-teacher tied to white supremacists", Globe and Mail, April 20, 2007
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