268	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bblind, deaf, and stubborn among us learn that there are bmany camps but only one home. Generally that time comes btoo late.

b“It is not yet too late, however, to lift the veil from our beyes, the veil that grows not from lack of understanding but bfrom refusal to understand—not from true blindness but bfrom unwillingness to see. We are a generation that fulfills bthe words of our rabbis in Ruth: ‘Woe unto the generation bthat judges its judges . . .’ Indeed, woe unto a generation so blacking in men of greatness that it wanders around lost, brudderless, and uncomprehending. We are such a genera- btion and I know that never in the history of our people has bsuch a massive community as the American Jewish one is bbeen so utterly and completely devoid of one single man of bgreatness. The Jews of the desert wandered, but had at least bthe consolation of a Moses who knew clearly where he was btaking them. The American Jewish wanderers do not have beven that. I can only repeat what I have said so many times: bIt is time to stop wandering and go home.”

bWhat could one do, I wondered to myself, when even the bobservant Jew stood blind, deaf, and prepared to foresake bdestiny for the fleshpots of America? I smiled ruefully as I bread the ads in the Jewish Press:

b“Yes! There is a Young Israel [Orthodox] in Scarsdale. bYoung friendly community; modern homes in country set- btings; adjacent to Mid-Westchester YM-YWHA; excellent bshopping . . .”

bOr, “Young Israel of North Bellmore, where Orthodoxy band Suburbia meet . . .”

bAnd the children of Israel continued their travels and bhow many more would leave the Exile through the chim- bneys . . .

bThe most clearcut sign of the hostility towards Jews that bI had been speaking about for so long, was the shocking bcomment by General George S. Brown, the chairman of the bUnited States Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said, during an ap- bpearance at Duke University on October 10, 1974: