52	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bnized by reporters and delegates, and within minutes tens of bpeople had surrounded our party. The note was submitted, basking for the right to be a representative of the Jewish bDefense League and for permission to speak. A brief inter- bview with the press followed. I stated that I feared that the bconference would not deal with concrete measures and that bI had a ten-point program for it. I told them that I could b“not believe that a Jewish conference would ignore elemen- btary democratic procedure and bar me.” Within ten minutes bI was proven wrong. A guard came up with Rabbi Schacter’s breply: the conference had decided to bar me.

bThe question is: why? The official answer is that only brepresentatives of “member agencies of the American Con- bference and the Conference of Presidents could be dele- bgates.” It is a lie and a fraud. We know full well that the bAgudat Israel and Union of Orthodox Rabbis of North bAmerica, both of which are not members of either of the babove-mentioned bodies, were asked to attend. We know bthat Otto Preminger and Paddy Chayefsky and Saul Bellow band other such longtime workers for Soviet Jewry were binvited to attend and speak.

bThe real answer is that these people, despite the fact that bthey can contribute little to the Soviet Jewish solution, were bchosen for the prestige that their names could lend the bconvention, a prestige and status that weighs more impor- btantly with the little leaders of American Jewry than any- bthing else. JDL was excluded because these people fear its bpower to sway Jews, its power to shake them from their bdo-nothingness. It was fear that moved the conference bleadership to bar JDL and Dov Sperling and later to boo bMenahem Begin. It was fear that was soon to lead them to bacquiesce in the shameful expulsion of a Jew.

bUpon receiving my answer, I informed the delegates and bthe press that I was leaving because I had “not come to bdisrupt the conference.” I announced that at 2:30 PM a press bconference would be held at my hotel where I would unveil bthe ten-point program. The press conference was held on btime, but I was not destined to be there.

bLeaving the hall with Shoshan and Sperling, I was within b