The leader of the militant Jewish Defense League says he is soon coming to New York City to confront black leaders.
“A top priority for the Jewish Defence [sic] League in New York City will be to expose and confront Black organizations and leaders who spread antisemitism within the Black community,” JDL leader Meir Weinstein said in a statement posted to Facebook Wednesday.
“Jewish blood is being spilled almost on a daily basis,” he told The Post. “The [New York anti-Semitism] march on Sunday didn’t even address the issue as far as we’re concerned.”
Weinstein’s organization — which the FBI decades ago labeled “a right-wing terrorist group” — has been dormant in New York City for years. But Weinstein, 62, says current conditions demand a revival.
“There’s gotta be action and there has to be things that are addressed,” he said, referring to the violent attacks in Monsey and NYC. “We’re very concerned about the level of antisemitism coming from the black community.”
The activist is planning to hit Manhattan, Brooklyn and possibly the Monsey synagogue in a three-or-four-day visit later this month.
A JDL member in Los Angles told The Post he was getting “100 to 200 emails a week,” from people looking for more information about the group.
Weinstein said he took a call from Pedram Bral, the mayor of Great Neck, LI.
“There are many speeches and tweets condemning these acts of violence but I want to know what anyone is doing to curb the situation and make it more safe,” Bral told The Post.
Weinstein will also use the visit to meet with potential donors.
“We just had somebody in New York call us Monday night who pledged $2,600,” he said.
Since taking over the JDL 10 years ago, Weinstein has led the organization from his headquarters in Toronto. The group’s once-powerful presence in New York has been mostly defunct since JDL’s previous chairman Irv Rubin committed suicide in 2002 in prison while awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy to bomb a California mosque and the offices of Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican.
The violent tactics were rooted in the militant ideology of the JDL’s founder, the Brooklyn-born Orthodox Rabbi Meir Kahane. The JDL logo to this day remains a fist inside a Jewish Star. Its slogan is “Never Again.”
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, JDL members were involved or suspected to be involved in a number of domestic terror incidents. In 1985 the organization came under suspicion for a bombing in Santa Ana, California, which killed Palestinian rights activist Alex Odeh. JDL leaders denied any involvement at the time and the murder remains unsolved. Kahane received a five-year suspended sentence in 1971 on charges of conspiracy to manufacture explosives.
Kahane was killed in November 1990 in Manhattan’s Marriott East Side Hotel, allegedly shot at point-blank range by Egyptian-born American El Sayyid Nosair. Nosair was acquitted of the murder but sentenced to 22 years in prison on a variety of lesser charges.
Weinstein insists his NYC mission is peaceful and he has no intention of instigating violence.
When he does land, the JDL boss can expect a chilly welcome from establishment New York Jewish leaders — who said his presence will only make matters worse. The Anti-Defamation League maintains a lengthy rap sheet documenting the group’s history on their website.
“I am concerned that they are going to come and try and address these issues and make matters worse,” Oren Segal, Vice President of ADL Center on Extremism told The Post. “You don’t fight violence against the Jewish community with more violence. You don’t fight the hatred that may be animating these incidents with more hatred.”
*story by New York Post