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Jewish Terrorist Groups in the United States———193

bombing death of Alex Odeh, regional director of the men pleaded not guilty and they have not yet gone
American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee to trial.
(ADC) in Santa Ana, California.
According to a 1985 U.S. Department of Justice THE JEWISH ARMED RESISTANCE
report, the FBI also suspected Manning and several
other JDL members of being involved in a yearlong Throughout 1976 and 1977 a group calling itself the
series of violent incidents in that year. These included Jewish Armed Resistance (JAR) took responsibility
the August house-bomb slaying of Tscherim Soob- for a spate of bombings of Soviet targets in the United
zokov, a suspected Nazi war criminal, in Paterson, States. In January 1976, a pipe bomb exploded in
New Jersey; the August 16 attempt to bomb the front of the Polish consulate in New York City. After
Boston offices of ADC office in which two policemen the explosion, a man called two wire services and took
were severely injured; the September bombing at responsibility for the bombing, claiming he repre-
the Brentwood, Long Island, home of alleged Nazi sented “the voice of Jewish Armed Resistance.”
Elmars Sprogis, in which a 23-year-old passerby lost Over the next two years, the JAR, which also acted
a leg; and the setting afire of the ADC office in under the name Jewish Armed Resistance Strike
Washington, D.C., on October 29. Group, claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist
Manning and his wife were arrested in Israel acts, including: firing shots at the Soviet U.N. Mission
on March 24, 1991, and charged in a separate suit residence, bombing a building housing the Soviet air-
involving the 1980 letter-bomb murder of Patricia line offices, firebombing two vehicles at Kennedy
Wilkerson, a secretary in California. Manning was Airport, and firebombing the national headquarters of
extradited to the United States on condition that he the Communist Party and a Russian bookstore.
not be tried in the Odeh murder and the other cases, In 1977, the group claimed responsibility for setting
because the events occurred after he became an Israeli afire a New York area bank, saying the arson was a
citizen. However, on October 13, 1994, Robert Man- political protest. That year the JAR also took responsi-
ning was found guilty of complicity in the Wilkerson bility for bombing a Jewish center in California, claim-
murder. ing in a letter that the center was too liberal. However,
The 1985 Department of Justice study of terrorist as protests against the JAR from Jewish rabbis and
acts in the United States since 1981 found that of 18 Jewish social action groups mounted, the group
incidents initiated by so-called Jewish terrorist ele- became considerably less active and eventually
ments, 15 were by the JDL. In a 1986 study of domes- seemed to disappear.
tic terrorism, the U.S. Department of Energy concluded:
“For more than a decade, the Jewish Defense League OTHER GROUPS
(JDL) has been one of the most active terrorist groups
During the 1980s, other Jewish groups mounted a few
in the United States.”
isolated attacks on Soviet targets. In 1983, a group
Kahane moved to Israel in 1971, where he won
calling itself the United Jewish Underground took
a following among that country’s extreme right.
responsibility for the pipe bombing of a car belonging
He established a political party, Kach, which eventu-
to a Russian diplomat. In 1984, a Soviet residential
ally won several seats in the Knesset, or Israeli
compound in Brooklyn was bombed by a group call-
Parliament. Kahane was assassinated in New York
ing itself Jewish Direct Action.
in 1990. (The suspect, El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian-
born Muslim who was a naturalized U.S. citizen, See also KAHANE CHAI; MEIR KAHANE
was acquitted by a Manhattan jury but later sentenced
to a life term after he was convicted in a new trial.) Further Reading
During the 1990s, Jewish terrorist acts were infre-
Friedman, Robert I. The False Prophet: Rabbi Meir
quent; in December 2001, however, two top leaders
Kahane. Brooklyn, NY: Lawrence Hill, 1990.
of the Los Angeles branch of the JDL were arrested
Friedman, Robert I. “How Shamir Used JDL Terrorism.”
and charged with a plot to bomb the King Fahd The Nation, October 31, 1988.
Mosque in Culver City, California, the Muslim Halsell, Grace. Prophecy and Politics: Militant Evangelists
Public Affairs Council (MPAC), and the office of on the Road to Nuclear War. Westport, CT: Lawrence
Congressman Darrell Issa, an Arab American. Both Hill, 1986.