118	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bgranted the Nazi the right to persuade people to put me into bthe oven. How was the liberal to guarantee that the Nazi bwould not succeed in swaying people, and if he did, if the bdanger was indeed “clear and present,” to quote the Su- bpreme Court, who would guarantee that it would not be too blate to stop the danger? “If you see anti-Semitism, step on it bimmediately as soon as it rears its head,” I had often told our byoungsters. That, not trusting in the good sense of “the bpeople” was the only guarantee of Jewish survival.

bThe violence against Jews and threats to Jewish equality bspread into many areas of the city’s life, including the anti- bpoverty program. This scheme had been set up to provide bbenefits for the needy. In practice, it had become a huge bpayment of blackmail designed to keep the loudest militants bquiet by paying them off. Thanks to the Black and Puerto bRican militants, every poverty area in the city had its share of b“Third World” representation on antipoverty boards, while bthe Jews, making up the third largest poverty group, were brepresented in only two neighborhoods, Williamsburg and bCrown Heights, both predominantly Orthodox.

bFor months, Black militants in Crown Heights had at- btempted to intimidate the Jewish antipoverty office, the bCrown Heights Jewish Community Council, and the Jew in bgeneral. The neighborhood was a jungle with Jews terrified band violent crime commonplace. In 1968 the local election bfor neighborhood directors of the Model Cities Program b(the body that allocated funds for programs in the area) had bbeen disrupted by militants who had threatened Jews and in bat least two cases physically barred them from voting. The blocal chief thug was Sonny Carson, a member of the Nean- bderthal school who had won a measure of historical notice bwhen appearing on the David Susskind Show. Little David, a bgentleman, liberal and lemming to the end, listened to Car- bson announce that he, Susskind, was a pig and proceed to bcall him “pig” for two hours. The smiling polite refusal by bSusskind to punch Carson in the nose was clear evidence bthat the label had some justification. In any case, it was this bcreature who terrorized Crown Heights. In the spring of b1969 he and a group of fellow travelers took over the office b