Mordechai Levy

Last updated

Mark "Mordechai" Levy is a U.S.-based political activist and founder of the militant Jewish Defense Organization (JDO), a breakaway faction of the Jewish Defense League. David Tell of the Weekly Standard wrote that the group is "located at the farthest, shadowy margins of American public life." [1] Levy has organized a paramilitary training camp located in Upstate New York, named after Revisionist Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky. [2]

Contents

Early attention

Levy first came to public attention after he was arrested in 1981 in Los Angeles on a charge of firebombing a Nigerian diplomat's car that was parked near the Soviet U.N. Mission. Three days earlier, Levy was arrested after attacking a Latvian, alleged to be a Nazi war criminal, in a courtroom as he was fighting deportation. [3] [4]

Jewish Defense Organization

By the mid-1980s, Levy had left the Jewish Defense League to form the Jewish Defense Organization. In 1985, after a bomb at the Santa Ana, California offices of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee killed its West Coast director, Alex Odeh, both the Jewish Defense League and the Jewish Defense Organization came under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. [5] Two weeks earlier, according to The New York Times , The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's New York office appeared on a list entitled "Enemies of the Jewish People" handed out in Washington, DC by Levy. [6] Levy was quoted in a UPI report denying responsibility for the murder: "We had no hand in this, but this man deserved what he got." [7] Asked about the attacks by the New York Times, Levy said "We aren't claiming credit, but it couldn't happen to better people, more deserving people. They're getting a taste of their own medicine." [8]

Levy was charged with four counts of attempted murder and other charges after he opened fire on late JDL leader Irv Rubin in 1989, hitting an innocent bystander. Rubin was attempting to serve a subpoena on Levy. Levy was acquitted of all charges except one count of felony assault with a deadly weapon, for which he served 18 months of a 4½ year sentence. [9] [10] Levy pleaded guilty in 2000 to unrelated charges that he assaulted a 12-year-old boy in New York State. [11]

Levy collects information on neo-Nazis, the KKK and Arab organizations. A 1989 Village Voice article on Jewish militants reported:

His [Levy's] uncanny ability to track down KKK members and neo-Nazis astounded federal officials. 'Levy does appear to possess membership lists of neo-Nazi groups and KKK members across the U.S.,' a confidential FBI memorandum reported." [12]

Greensboro massacre

After the massacre of five left-wing anti-Klan demonstrators by Klansmen and neo-Nazis in Greensboro, N.C. in 1979 (an incident known as the Greensboro massacre), Levy came forward with information to help the victims in their attempt to win justice, although he did not agree with their Marxist politics. Paul Bermanzohn, one of the survivors of the neo-Nazi attack, recalled the efforts to establish in court that the FBI had possessed advance knowledge of the plot:

"Most incriminating of all was an affidavit from Mordechai Levy of the Jewish Defense Organization. When Levy got his FBI file through the Freedom of Information Act, he found an entry dated November 2, 1979, the day before the massacre. In it, the FBI reported that Levy told one of their agents, 'I have information that Harold Covington of the National Socialist Party of America is up to heavy illegal activity. Covington has been training in the Jefferson County area with illegal weapons. He and his group have plans to attack and possibly kill people at an anti-Klan gathering this week in North Carolina.'" [13]

LaRouche

Levy infiltrated the Lyndon LaRouche organization on a part-time basis from 1980–84 as a security consultant and supplied disinformation that convinced some of LaRouche's security staffers of plots against their leader. After Levy revealed his deception, the LaRouchians described him as a "chaos agent." [14]

Levy has said that the JDO has a membership of 3,000 members, but monitors of Jewish extremist groups say only about a dozen people are actively involved at any one time. [15] A 1992 feature in the Jerusalem Report notes that "Journalists and extremist-group monitors who have followed Levy's career say the Jewish Defense Organization exists mainly in his mind, that his hardcore following is at most a few dozen Orthodox teenagers." [16]

David Duke

In 1989, Levy traveled to Louisiana to attempt to disrupt the campaign of David Duke, the former Klan leader, for the state legislature. [17] [18] An initial rally planned for the Congregation Beth Israel was canceled after the synagogue's Rabbi Gavriel Newman noted Levy's statements that the JDO would not rule out violence in its efforts against Duke. [19] Levy held a small rally against Duke the following month. [20] Duke ultimately won in a run-off by 227 votes. Some Jewish leaders held Levy responsible for the victory. According to New Orleans Jewish Federation director Jane Buchsbaum, "there was a strong belief that Mordechai's interference helped create those 227 votes." Leonard Zeskind of the Center for Democratic Renewal, which monitors right-wing extremism, said Levy "went down there and carried on like a character out of central casting for a crazed New York Jew. I'm sure there were 227 people who voted for Duke just to get at Mordechai Levy. I hold him personally responsible for the election of David Duke." [16]

Rutgers

Levy and the JDO's involvement led to accusations that the group inflamed divisions at Rutgers University in 1995, where African American students had protested against comments made by then-President Francis L. Lawrence that were perceived as anti-Black. The JDO accused the protesting Black students of themselves being racist and anti-Semitic. Levy's involvement was met with apprehension by some members of the Rutgers Jewish community. Rabbi Norman Weitzner of Rutgers Hillel felt there was no anti-Semitism involved and noted "The JDO sees anti-Semitism at the drop of a hat, when it may not actually exist." The interim director of Rutgers Hillel said at the time that Levy "thinks he's going to wake up the Jewish students. What's going to happen is that he's going to start a racial war." [21]

Levy is also known for his running legal battles with independent licensed investigator and noted electronic privacy researcher Steven Rombom, for which Rombom would ultimately successfully sue Levy and the JDO for in 1997 alleging defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and incitement to violence, [22] for his incessant attacks against ADL founder Abraham Foxman and others. Along with JDO activist A. J. Weberman, also known for his activism in the Youth International Party (Yippies,) Levy and the JDO were successfully sued for libel more recently and fined $850,000.

Levy claims to have done investigative work on such figures as American neo-Nazi Harold Covington and of Steven Hatfill, the one-time person of interest in the yet-unsolved 2001 anthrax attacks; on the apparently ultra orthodox, and self-proclaimed anti-Zionist Rabbi Moshe Aryeh Friedman; [23] and on the reputed Pakistani terror cult Jamaat ul-Fuqra.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Defense League</span> Jewish far-right organization

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ku Klux Klan</span> American white supremacist terrorist hate group

The Ku Klux Klan, commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan is the name of several historical and current American white supremacist, far-right terrorist organizations and hate groups. The Klan was "the first organized terror movement in American history." Their primary targets are African Americans, Hispanics, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Italian Americans, Irish Americans, and Catholics, as well as immigrants, leftists, homosexuals, Muslims, atheists, and abortion providers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meir Kahane</span> American-Israeli politician (1932–1990)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Duke</span> American white supremacist (born 1950)

David Ernest Duke is an American politician, white supremacist, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. From 1989 to 1992, he was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for the Republican Party. His politics and writings are largely devoted to promoting conspiracy theories about Jews, such as Holocaust denial and Jewish control of academia, the press, and the financial system. In 2013, the Anti-Defamation League called Duke "perhaps America's most well-known racist and anti-Semite".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Aryan Resistance</span> Neo-Nazi organization led by Tom Metzger

White Aryan Resistance (WAR) is a white supremacist and neo-Nazi organization in the United States which was founded and formerly led by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Tom Metzger. It was based in Warsaw, Indiana, and it was also incorporated as a business. In 1993, the group expanded into Canada in what they dubbed operation Maple leaf.

The Communist Workers' Party (CWP) was a far-left Maoist group in the United States. It had its origin in 1973 as the Asian Study Group established by Jerry Tung, a former member of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) who had grown disenchanted with the group and disagreed with changes taking place in the party line. The party is mainly remembered as being associated with victims of the Greensboro Massacre of 1979.

American Renaissance is a white supremacist website and former monthly magazine publication founded and edited by Jared Taylor. It is published by the New Century Foundation.

The Jewish Defense Organization (JDO) was or is a Jewish militant group in the United States. It is unclear if it is still functioning.

In the United States, domestic terrorism is defined as terrorist acts that were carried out within the United States by U.S. citizens and/or U.S. permanent residents. As of 2021, the United States government considers white supremacists to be the top domestic terrorism threat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Shelton (Ku Klux Klan)</span> American Ku Klux Klan member (1929–2003)

Robert Marvin Shelton was an American former car-tire salesman and printer who became nationally famous as the Imperial Wizard of United Klans of America (UKA), a Ku Klux Klan group.

The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (JBAKC) was an anti-racist organization based in the United States. The group protested against the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and other white supremacist organizations and published anti-racist literature. Members of the JBAKC were involved in a string of bombings of military, government, and corporate targets in the 1980s. The JBAKC viewed themselves as anti-imperialists and considered African Americans, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans to be oppressed colonial peoples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregation Beth Israel (New Orleans)</span> Synagogue in New Orleans, United States

Congregation Beth Israel is a Modern Orthodox synagogue located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1903 or 1904, though tracing its roots back to 1857, it is the oldest Orthodox congregation in the New Orleans region. Originally located on Carondelet Street in New Orleans' Central City, it constructed and moved to a building at 7000 Canal Boulevard in Lakeview, New Orleans, in 1971.

Stormfront is a neo-Nazi Internet forum, and the Web's first major racial hate site. The site is focused on propagating white nationalism, Nazism, antisemitism and islamophobia, as well as anti-feminism, homophobia, transphobia, Holocaust denial, and white supremacy.

Roy Everett Frankhouser, Jr. was a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, a member of the American Nazi Party, a government informant, and a security consultant to Lyndon LaRouche. Frankhouser was reported by federal officials to have been arrested at least 142 times. In 2003 he told a reporter, "I'm accused of everything from the sinking of the Titanic to landing on the moon." He was convicted of federal crimes in at least three cases, including dealing in stolen explosives and obstruction of justice. Irwin Suall, of the Anti-Defamation League, called Frankhouser "a thread that runs through the history of American hate groups".

David Wayne Hull is a leader of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which is considered the most militant as well as the most violent Ku Klux Klan in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irwin Suall</span>

Irwin Suall was an American socialist, union organizer, civil rights activist, investigator and researcher. He was national director of fact-finding for the Anti-Defamation League from 1967 to 1997 in which capacity he directed that organization's undercover intelligence gathering on extremist groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Metzger</span> American white supremacist and Neo-Nazi leader

Thomas Linton Metzger was an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi skinhead leader and Klansman. He founded White Aryan Resistance (WAR), a neo-nazi organization, in 1983. He was a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. Metzger voiced strong opposition to immigration to the United States, and was an advocate of the Third Position. He was incarcerated in Los Angeles County, California, and Toronto, Ontario, and was the subject of several lawsuits and government inquiries. He, his son, and WAR were fined $12 million as a result of the murder of Mulugeta Seraw, 28, an Ethiopian student, by skinheads in Portland, Oregon, affiliated with WAR.

References

  1. ↑ David Tell (September 16, 2002). "The Hunting of Steven J. Hatfill". The Weekly Standard.
  2. ↑ Mordechai Levy, Jewish Youth Learn to Shoot
  3. ↑ Philadelphia Man Accused of Firebombing Car Near Soviet Mission. The Associated Press. September 9, 1981
  4. ↑ Anti-Defamation League. Backgrounder: The Jewish Defense League. About the Jewish Defense League, 2001
  5. ↑ Judith Cummings. F.B.I. says Jewish Defense League may have planted fatal bombs. The New York Times. November 9, 1985
  6. ↑ David K. Shipler. Arab-Americans seek protection. The New York Times. December 3, 1985.
  7. ↑ United Press International. October 14, 1985. "No one claimed responsibility for the explosion, but a spokesman for the Jewish Defense Organization charged Sunday that Odeh was targeted because of his past support for the Palestine Liberation Organization. "We had no hand in this, but this man deserved what he got, said Mordechai Levy, a spokesman for the organization that is an offshoot of the militant Jewish Defense League."
  8. ↑ Philip Shenon. F.B.I. Chief Warns Arabs of Danger. The New York Times. December 11, 1985.
  9. ↑ "JEWISH DEFENSE ORGANIZATION, INC v THE SUPERIOR COURT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY". Archived from the original on May 29, 2000. Retrieved 2 June 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  10. ↑ "Jewish Defense League Leader Declared Brain Dead in Suicide". The New York Times. November 5, 2002. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
  11. ↑ Shimon Bar-Lev (April 24, 2000). "Jewish militant pleads guilty to assault on 12-year-old". The Jerusalem Post.
  12. ↑ "Robert I. Friedman Village Voice 22-Aug-1989 Oy Vey, Make My Day". Archived from the original on 2006-04-28. Retrieved 2008-01-18. Robert I. Friedman, "Oy Vey, Make My Day," Village Voice, Aug. 22, 1989
  13. ↑ Bud Schultz and Ruth Schultz, It Did Happen Here: Recollections of Political Repression, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989
  14. ↑ Part Six, Chapter 25 (pp. 243–251) of Dennis King's Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism
  15. ↑ Walter Ruby. Militant Jewish feud leads to shooting. The Jerusalem Post, August 13, 1989
  16. 1 2 J.J. Goldberg. Mordechai Levy vs the Klan. The Jerusalem ReportJuly 2, 1992.
  17. ↑ Kim Chatelain, "Militant Jewish Leader Calls Duke a Small Time Hitler," New Orleans Times-Picayune, Feb. 9, 1989
  18. ↑ Royal Brightbill. Jews threaten statehouse campaign of former klansman. United Press International, January 25, 1989.
  19. ↑ Alberto S. Franco. Synagogue Cancels Anti-Duke Rally. The Associated Press, January 26, 1989.
  20. ↑ Mary Foster. Small Crowd Listens To Warning About Candidate Duke, a Former Klan Leader. The Associated Press. February 13, 1989.
  21. ↑ Raff, Lisa. JDO refuels racial fire at Rutgers University. MetroWest Jewish News. Mar 2, 1995
  22. ↑ Superior Court for the State of California Steven Rambam vs Jewish Defense Organization, et al. Complaint for Case No. 179060
  23. ↑ Gabrielle Birkner (January 16, 2007). "A cold reception for Rabbi who embraced Iran". The New York Sun.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.