72	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bJewishness. It now plays a powerful social and economic role bin the affairs of New York City and its metropolitan area. It bnow has transcended its beginnings and moved on to bigger, bbetter, and more prestigious horizons.

b“Beware the Jewish fat and wealthy sitters at the bsynagogue’s East Wall! They will not fight the hazardous band desperate battles for the Jew in need because they bthemselves are not in need, and they will not willingly risk btoo militant a struggle for the Jew that has not. Nor will they bbe satisfied to remain within the narrow Jewish confines bwhen the real prestige and the real national glamour lies in bnon-Jewish national issues. These leaders need their or- bganizations and their membership because they are vehicles bthat impress the non-Jew. The latter really believes that the bJewish Establishment groups speak for meaningful num- bbers of Jews and therefore looks upon the heads of these bgroups as leaders and spokesmen who have the ability to bdeliver votes or power or people. In short, Jewish leaders buse their organizations and their membership as ladders to bthe higher and more rarified atmosphere of national spot- blight.”

bIn early 1968 I served as the associate editor of the blargest-selling Anglo-Jewish newspaper in the country, The bJewish Press, and in a few months would begin to serve as brabbi in a Queens synagogue. As letters and phone calls bcame in from little Jews reporting the incidents that never bappeared in the press and that the major Jewish organiza- btions were so silent about, my anger and apprehension bgrew. On the one hand, the Jewish leaders had presided bover the death of Jewish consciousness and identity on the bpart of young Jews as they built their own sham, as- bsimilationist brand of hypocritical “Judaism.” It was the bJewish leadership that was directly and most responsible for bthose Jewish youngsters who marched for the Left against bIsrael, or who sought answers in the madness of Zen, Jesus, bdrugs, and flight from reality.

bOn the other hand, they stood quietly by mouthing pious bplatitudes about the destruction of the little Jew and little bJewish neighborhood, excusing and condoning an anti- b