260	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bby this incredible statement, but merely note that no one bhad spoken of the question of conflicting loyalties—I had bnot even remotely touched upon it in my article—and Mr. bGolden’s pointed reference “to the question” was something bthat he himself had done. He who was so insecure, so uncon- bsciously troubled by the fear of the gentile, had raised it bhimself, hysterically and irrationally.

bAnother who raised his voice in opposition to the thought bthat America falls into the category of Esau was the late Dr. bAbraham Joshua Heschel, Professor of Jewish Ethics and bMysticism at Conservative Judaism’s school, the Jewish bTheological Seminary. Heschel, whose own confusion and brambling was masterfully concealed in beautiful and poetic bform, decried the “unprecedented crisis of self-confidence, bhysteria, and massive depression,” and warned against b“questioning the viability of the American Jewish commu- bnity, coupled with the predictions of imminent Holocaust.” bIt is noteworthy that Heschel, one of the great theological bfrauds of our time, found it incumbent to call for “a more bsympathetic and compassionate response” to the plight of bJewish poor, changing neighborhoods, reverse discrimina- btion, and the mood of Jewish “despair.” Heschel, whose bembraces with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were legendary bduring the civil rights years of the sixties, had never once bseen fit to mention these Jewish problems until long after bthe JDL had done so.

bFrom London, the prestigious Lord Janney, a leader of bthe equally prestigious Board of Deputies of British Jewry, ballowed as my call for mass aliyah was wrong. “He brings bJews into prominence here on a wrong premise. He’s just an bextremist. If he believes what he says, he’s entirely mis- bguided, he’s wrong.” The Brooklyn Jewish Journal carried an beditorial entitled “Speak For Yourself, Meir.” The Yiddish- blanguage daily newspaper The Forward carried a long article bby Moshe Kristal bitterly attacking us. Rabbi Marc Tanen- bbaum, the man in charge of ecumenism for the American bJewish Committee, and who had worked so hard to per- bsuade Christians to stop calling Jews “Christ-killers,” called bour call “a bizarre outburst bearing no relationship to pres- b