bGovernment favored a strong U.S. stance in Vietnam, and
bthis was certainly true. Probably one of the most telling
bcontradictions between what was good for liberalism and
bwhat was good for Jews was revealed at the American Jewish
bCongress convention in Cleveland in May 1972, when Is-
braeli Vice Premier Yigal Allon addressed the conclave and
bvigorously defended Nixon’s Vietnam Policy while the con-
bvention was voting bitter censure of the President for min-
bing Haiphong Harbor.
bThere is little question that our stand on Vietnam hurt us
bon the campuses. The fact that we did not compromise and
bback away was the secret of JDL’s difference and greatness.
bWhen faced with a situation in which a particular position
bwas good for Jews and bad for JDL, we never hesitated.
bJewish good always came first, and in the case of Vietnam we
bknew that a strong U.S. foreign policy was vital and good for
bIsrael despite the fact that our declarations to that effect
bhurt JDL in its recruiting drive. I attempted again and again
bto convince our members never to back away from principle
bfor the sake of short-range gain and that, in the long run,
bthe truth you said while being pelted with stones would be
bremembered and you would emerge the stronger for it. The
bAmerican Jewish Congress and the Reform Jewish move-
bment could proclaim such asininities as a “Sabbath for peace
bto stop the unwanted war in Indochina” (November 6,
b1971), and Boston rabbis who never dreamed of doing the
bsame for Soviet Jews could get arrested for sitting in the
bstreets to protest Nixon’s Vietnam policy, while all kinds of
bschizophrenic Reform and Conservative rabbis could call
bfor a fast in September 1972 over the Asian war. JDL never
bwavered from its commitment to Jews and what was vital for
bJewish interests. That alone would have marked it as a
bmajor and revolutionary difference in Jewish life even had it
bdone nothing else to warrant the label.
bIs-it-good-for Jews also brought us into the eye of a public
bopinion hurricane when we publicly accepted the help of
bJoseph Colombo, Sr., and his Italian-American Civil Rights
bAssociation. The respectable Jewish groups howled in self-
brightous indignation, the vast majority of Jews were deeply
b