Official chapters of the Jewish Defense League as well as national and regional offices:
In October 2000, after an absence of more than 20 years, the Jewish Defense League once again had an Arizona chapter. Its first event coincided with a solidarity rally for Israel at Temple Chai of Phoenix, held on October 29, 2000, hosted by the Arizona Jewish community. At that time, there were 27 members; 20 in Phoenix, five in Tucson, and two at the University of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. Irv Rubin, then national JDL chairman, worked closely with Arizona chairman, Ian Rakow, to establish the chapter. Rakow stated, that one of the main goals of the chapter, "is to educate," and said that, "depending upon their level of comfort," members can attend meetings, protests, and rallies, or write articles for the website. [1] [2]
Following a string of anti-Semitic incidents, including vandalism using anti-Semitic graffiti in Prescott, Arizona, JDL of Arizona offered a one-thousand dollar reward for "information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for spray-painting threatening, anti-Semitic graffiti on the headquarters of Prescott’s Safe Schools, Safe Students," [3] [4] as well as a free Carrying Concealed Weapons class held in February, 2001 in Prescott, Arizona, in order to obtain Concealed Weapons Permits, "with the goal of empowering the law-abiding citizens against future victimization and escalation of these terrorist acts." [5] [6] The chapter disbanded in January 2002. [7]
The Jewish Defense League of Los Angeles is also the site of the JDL International Headquarters. They can be contacted at P.O. Box 480370, Los Angeles, CA 90048. [8] The Chairman and National Chairman and CEO is Shelley Rubin, and the Vice-Chairman and National Vice-President is Ari Rubin. [9]
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The Jewish Defense League of Chicago [8] is under the leadership of Sholom Ben-David. In 2002, the Chicago JDL had a car as part of its Mobile Response Unit in which they patrolled synagogues. [10] [11]
The Washington, D.C. chapter of the Jewish Defense League was established on April 26, 2017 and is run by Chairman David Bar-Lev. Bar-Lev was formerly the Chairman of the now-defunct Jewish Defense League of Tampa Bay from September 1999 to October 2004. [12] The Jewish Defense League of Washington, DC maintained a Twitter page [13] prior to its suspension that sought to recruit new members to join its ranks. [13]
The Jewish Defense League of Louisiana was formed on July 27 of 2008. [14] JDL Louisiana created a now defunct website, [15] www.louisianajdl.org, on July 20, 2008. [16] [17] [18] [19] It currently operates a new website, [20] Twitter [21] that "tweets" about events and blog posts by the JDL, as well as Jewish and Israeli news, and a Facebook group. [22] Their motto is, "Your Jewish Neighborhood Watch." [23]
The Jewish Defense League of Michigan was formed in 2009. [8]
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The Jewish Defense League of Texas was formed on August 14, 2006 [8] under the leadership of Ben Johnson in Waco, Texas. Their expressed goal is, "...to bring unity with those who wish to confront those extremist groups whose sole aim is the destruction of the Jewish People." [24]
The Jewish Defense League of Canada was under the leadership of Meir Weinstein from the late 1970s until 2021, when Weinstein left the group. [25] JDL Canada resumed activities in 2006 after a long absence. [26] Since their reactivation, they have counter-protested against pro-Palestinian activists, picketed a conference on "Israeli apartheid" at the University of Toronto, [27] protested the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation for considering support of a boycott of Israel, [28] and protested the construction of a mosque led by an alleged "Islamist." [29] In April 2007, JDL Canada organized a picket outside of Paul Fromm's disciplinary hearing at the Ontario College of Teachers. This led to two arrests after JDL activists were accused of assaulting the controversial far-right figure. [30] On October 23, JDL Canada sponsored Israeli right winger Moshe Feiglin to come and address the Toronto Jewish community at a local synagogue. [31]
In March 2009, JDL Canada wrote an open letter to the Canadian government asking them to ban British politician George Galloway from entering Canada, which the government did. Galloway was scheduled to speak in Toronto at an event called "Resisting War from Gaza to Kandahar". [32] In 2010, a Federal Court judge imposed a ruling, calling the ban "a flawed and overreaching interpretation of the standards under Canadian law...". Galloway was now allowed to visit the country. [33]
The Jewish Defense league of London, Ontario was established in November 2009. The chairman is Pesach Ovadyah. The chapters Facebook group [34] has an active Discussions Board. As of September 30, 2016, this Facebook group no longer appears to be active.
The Jewish Defense League of Germany (German: Jüdische Verteidigungsliga) was formed during September 2009. The chairman is Steven Weigang. [35] [36] The German Chapter includes both the Austrian and Switzerland area.
The Jewish Defense League of Sweden was formed in 2008. The chairman is Adi. He was appointed by then JDL Europe National Director, Ariel Nahal.
The French JDL chapter was formed in October 2000.
The chapter has garnered some interest by the media after some alleged violent acts by some of its members, and a condemnation in 2003. Some prominent political parties and movements in France have publicly supported a petition to ban the French JDL. The chapter has forged ties with Marine Le Pen, a fellow opponent of the new anti-semitism in France. [37]
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JDL Lyon was founded on May 31, 2009. [38]
JDL Holland was founded by 8 Jews during Hanukkah, 2010.
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The JDL Hungary was founded by about ten Jews from Hungary in October 2010. [39] [40]
The Jewish Defense League of the United Kingdom was reformed in June 2009.
The Jewish Defense League of South Africa was re-formed [36] during May 2009. The chairman is Mordechai. [41]
The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a Jewish far-right religious-political organization in the United States and Canada, whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary". It has been classified as "a right wing terrorist group" by the FBI since 2001, and is designated a 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 terrorism watch groups classify the group as inactive as of 2015.
Meir David HaKohen Kahane was an American-born Israeli ordained Orthodox rabbi, writer, and ultra-nationalist politician who served one term in Israel's Knesset before being convicted of acts of terrorism. He founded the Israeli political party Kach. A cofounder of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), he espoused strong views against antisemitism.
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 New Black Panther Party (NBPP) is an American black nationalist organization founded in Dallas, Texas, in 1989. Despite its name, the NBPP is not an official successor to the Black Panther Party. Members of the original Black Panther Party have insisted that the new party has no legitimacy and "there is no new Black Panther Party".
Victor Vancier, commonly referred to by his Hebrew name, Chaim Ben Pesach or as Chaim Ben Yosef is an American political activist and the founder and director of the United States-based Kahanist organization, Jewish Task Force (JTF) and the former National Chairman of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) in the United States. In 1987, he was convicted on charges related to a series of terrorist bombings conducted during his time with the JDL to protest Soviet treatment of Jews. He served five and a half years in federal prison for his involvement in 18 bombings in New York and Washington.
The Jewish Defense Organization (JDO) was or is a Jewish militant group in the United States. It is unclear if it is still functioning.
Earl Leslie Krugel was the coordinator of the Jewish Defense League in the Western United States. In 2005, he was sentenced to prison on charges of terrorism after he confessed to plotting, with the group's leader Irv Rubin, to blow up the office of Arab-American congressman Darrell Issa and the King Fahd mosque in Culver City, California. He was kept in protective custody for three years for the 2001 bomb plot. He was transferred to a medium security federal prison following his sentencing where he was then murdered three days later by a fellow inmate, who struck him in the head with a block of concrete.
Alexander Michel Odeh was a Palestinian activist who was assassinated in a bombing in 1985. Odeh was the West Coast regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Jewish extremist terrorism is terrorism, including religious terrorism, committed by extremists within Judaism.
Jonathan Greenblatt is an American entrepreneur, corporate executive, and the sixth National Director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Prior to heading the ADL, Greenblatt served in the White House as Special Assistant to Barack Obama and Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.
Shelley Rubin is the widow of JDL International Chairman Irv Rubin, and is currently the chairman and CEO of the USA-based, Kahanist, Jewish Defense League, a group which was classified as "a right-wing terrorist group" by the FBI in 2001.
Marvin Weinstein known as Meir Weinstein and previously known as Meir Halevi 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.
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The Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIDF) was an organization active from the 2000s to the 2010s that used social media to mobilize support for campaigns against websites and Facebook groups that promote or praise what it described as Islamic terrorism or antisemitism. The group's website described the JIDF as a "private, independent, non-violent protest organization representing a collective of activists". The JIDF's work has been termed "hacktivism" by the BBC and Haaretz.
Alykhan Velshi is a lawyer, policy analyst, and ministerial assistant. He has worked at the predominantly neoconservative American Enterprise Institute and was manager of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where he co-founded the Center for Law and Counterterrorism with Andrew C. McCarthy. He has written pieces in support of George W. Bush's foreign and military policies. Velshi previously worked as director of issues management for Stephen Harper. He used to work as chief of staff for two leaders of the official opposition of Ontario, Patrick Brown and Vic Fedeli, who were then leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. Currently he is working in the private sector as Huawei Technologies Canada's vice-president of corporate affairs.
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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.
Students for Justice in Palestine is a pro-Palestinian college student activism organization in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. It has campaigned for boycott and divestment against corporations that deal with Israel and organized events about Israel's human rights violations.
David Christopher Cole, also known as David Stein, is an American film director. In the 1990s, he gained publicity as a Holocaust denier. Much of the controversy Cole attracted resulted from the fact that he is Jewish. After changing his name to David Stein following death threats, he became known for his activism on behalf of the Republican Party. He is the author of the book Republican Party Animal, published by Feral House in 2014.
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