THE STORY OF THE JEWISH DEFENSE LEAGUE Page 159
Chapter 5: I Am a Jew
 
 
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I Am a Jew 159

bcontrasts his farcical Judaism with the depth shown him by bagnostic professors, leftist movements, and radical bcauses—which is the direct cause of the phenomenon of bJewish participation in the extremist camp—Federation al- blows the Jewish day school movement to remain an un- bwanted stepchild, plagued at best by absurdly low salaries bfor teachers and cramped buildings and, worst, by invisibil- bity.

bThe reason is obvious. The autocrats of the Federation bare the same assimilated Jews who make up the other Estab- blishment groups and who frown upon Jewish education and blong for Jewish “integration.” Once again they cannot ac- bcept the idea of giving funds which would enable poor and bmiddle-class Jewish families to send their children to day bschools. They are opposed to maximum Jewish education, bper se. It is too Jewish.

bAnd so these people—who are responsible in the first bplace for the growth of the alienated young Jew—continue bto guarantee the destruction of the Jewish future. Money bfor hospitals whose clientele is predominantly not Jewish bcan always be found—somehow, this is under the Federa- btion charter. Money for unwed mothers, 90 percent of bwhom are not Jewish, money to keep up community centers bthat are breeding grounds for intermarriage, money for bevery conceiveable institution that bears little or no re- bsemblance to any Jewish cause or need—this is always avail- bable.

bBut funds for Jewish education, the heart of Jewish survi- bval, are verboten. Money to protect Jewish neighborhoods bfrom the onslaught of crime and hoodlumism; money to bprovide rent subsidies for elderly, poverty-stricken Jews btrapped in destroyed and nightmarish neighborhoods, to benable them to move out; money to provide permanent bprotection by armed guards for vandalized and threatened bJewish synagogues, cemeteries, and other institutions—all bthis is unavailable. In short, on the one hand, the patrician bhalf-assimilationists fight any government aid to Jewish beducation, and on the other, they refuse to give it Jewish bfunds.

bIn March 1970, JDL decided to launch a drive to make the b 

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THE STORY OF THE JEWISH DEFENSE LEAGUE Page 159
Chapter 5: I Am a Jew