JDL to Confront Nazis at Los Angles City Council (Recap)

April 12 2010 - 10:59:46:pm by JDL

Protest Recap:

Less than two dozen Nazis were vastly outnumbered by anti-fascist counter-demonstrators. The LAPD kept the forces separated by a large barrier for the protection of the Nazis. JDL VP Ari Rubin led counter-protest chants by megaphone against the vile haters. Although the anti-Nazi crowd had a large number of Socialists within its ranks, which made the situation awkward for JDL, they were peaceful and did not come into conflict with JDL. The anti-Nazi message came across clearly, and hopefully next time they won’t bother with a spectacle in Los Angeles.

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JDL will be at the Los Angeles City Council this Shabbos at noon to confront the Nazis who will attempt to hold a meeting there. We don’t want to encourage anyone to violate Shabbos to be at the event, but JDL members who are local are asked to attend if possible. it’s important for Jews to show their vehement opposition to Nazis when they appear, even if it is inconvenient. There will be a number of other anti-fascist groups in attendance. Stay tuned for updates from the event.

JDL Stands With Glenn Beck

April 07 2010 - 11:10:13:am by JDL

The Jewish Defense League stands along side Glenn Beck in his effort to promulgate political truths to the masses. In the past Beck was unfairly maligned by JDL nemesis the Anti-Defamation League for supposed trivialization of the Holocaust, even though it’s clear that Beck is a student of history and very respectful of the memory of the Six Million. Now Beck announced on his show today that an apparent leftist shill entity named “Jewish Funds for Justice,“ is targeting Beck as part of the orchestrated leftist effort to silence his speech. Glenn said that he doesn’t understand how a supposed Jewish organization could oppose him given his staunch support of Israel, but the obvious answer is that such Jews are no supporters of the Jewish state. Hopefully Glenn will find out about this post; hopefully he knows that JDL and other right-wing Jewish organizations are on his side.

Counter-Protests Greet WBC in Long Beach, CA

February 21 2010 - 4:09:32:pm by JDL

LONG BEACH (Press Telegram) - Members of a Kansas church best known for its strong anti-gay rhetoric was greeted by mild weather and overwhelming opposition when they stopped off at Wilson High School Friday afternoon during their weekend tour of the Southland. Seven members of the family of Fred Phelps, founder of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., are expected to attend a variety of events in and around Long Beach this weekend to spread their message. . .“

Within the Jewish community there were two very different responses. Deborah Goldfarb, executive director of the Jewish Federation, said she would simply ignore the Westboro group. “We’re trying to make it a nonevent,“ Goldfarb said. A spokesman from the Jewish Defense League, Ari Rubin, screamed curses at the church group. Rubin said that passivity among Jews paved the way for the Holocaust. “ (The Jewish Federation) think they can ignore or appease (opponents); we disagree,“ Rubin said.

(JDL’s recap of the day’s events to follow soon)

Upcoming WBC Counter-Protest Feb 19th

February 02 2010 - 9:17:06:am by JDL

JDL Los Angeles will be taking on the Phelps crew when they come to disturb the Alpert Jewish Community Center. All members and supporters in the Los Angeles area are urged to attend this event. Visit the Events page to stay informed on scheduled JDL events and activities.

JDL LA Counter-Demo v. GHF Feb. 19 at Long Beach JCC

January 11 2010 - 9:29:28:am by JDL

JDL is turning its attention to the planned protest by the Phelps god Hates losers that they have posted for February 19th at the Long Beach Jewish Community Center. This will be a very important counter-demonstation, so all JDL members and supporters in the area will be urged to attend. More details will be posted soon.

JDL Canada Counter-Protest on Nov. 28

November 24 2009 - 11:40:39:pm by JDL

Anti-Jewish/Anti-Israel groups will be out in force this Shabbat calling for a boycott of Israeli products sold at Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC), and JDL Canada will be there to oppose them.

Location: Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC)

Address: 400 King Street West (a block east of Spadina)

Date/Time: Saturday, November 28, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

If you can stay locally prior to the event, please do so. JDL does not encourage Jews to violate Shabbat, but JDL has a long tradition of standing up when all other Jewish organizations stand down in confronting threats on our holy days. JDL Canada asks you to bring Canadian and Israeli flags to wave, to purchase Israeli products sold at MEC and other companies that import Israeli products and to contact companies to express support of their decision to stock Israeli products.
For full event details and additional information, please check out the JDL Canada event page.

Event also posted in Participate in Events section

JDL Facebook Group Officially Part of JDL!

October 25 2009 - 9:44:36:am by JDL

(Originally Posted to Facebook)

Chevra:

Here’s an exciting announcement: The Jewish Defense League Facebook Group that you are subscribed to is now an official part of JDL!

The creator of the group, Derek, took a break from the social network for a while and did not realize how popular the group became. When he came back to FB he contacted JDL in order to grant us administrator access. Derek deserves high praise for the work he did: Thanks to his effort on our behalf, we now have a substantial number of Facebook members subscribed to our group and able to access JDL events and updates on the web’s number one content platform. And we hope to grow the FB group by large numbers very soon.

We’re going to be promoting the group on our all new jdl.org (check it out if you have not been to the site for a while), and we’re going to be utilizing the group for the benefit of our organization, its chapters, members and supporters. We’re really excited about the opportunities that the Jewish Defense League Facebook group will provide to us.

Aside from our FB group, we’re also polishing up our new integrated jdl.org discussion forums, which we think will be key to organizational growth and cohesiveness going forward. We will send out an announcement through our official channels (email list, Facebook group, Twitter) once the forums are operational.

JDL is growing fast and gaining serious momentum not only around the United States but globally as well. Of course, the most important element to making Jewish activism successful is the dedicated JDL leader or member who will spearhead events, respond to community problems and disputes and be willing to generally carry the JDL banner with strength and intelligence - as well as be prepared to defend against our foes. To that end we’re working on a number of new tools to strengthen our JDL chapters, which we will be rolling out very soon, BS"D. One such element will be our Street Squad section, which we hope to get supporters to sign up for to commit to coming to JDL events in major populartion centers nearest them. These two or three person units won’t be chapters, but chapters will be able to call on them to help support their JDL events. We’re also going to be creating higher priority email addresses for our members and leaders to use so that we can better prioritize and deal with your requests.

The other major front is the information war being fought primarily online for the hearts and minds of Jews and non-Jews. We now have in our new website a world-class platform for delivering rich content to the public, and since we know with certainty we have truth on our side we simply need to deliver it effectively. Obviously, doing that is a substantial job. Our new website is the most ambitious ever as far as the scope of content is concerned, but there are a multitude of sections currently in development that we need high quality content for. Unfortunately, our core staff is small and encumbered with many diverse obligations to attend to on a daily basis. Progress will be made one way or another, but you can help us progress faster. If you see a topic you that you could envision writing on from the JDL perspective, give it a try. Even if it isn’t polished, send it our way and we will likely be able to put it to use.

Also, it bears repeating that JDL is an above-board, legal organization. Our no-tolerance policy against serious infractions of the law (which you can read about on jdl.org in our anti-terrorism section) is clear and comprehensive. We operate legally and openly in the countries we reside in, and given the past misfortune we have suffered we are now keenly vigilant against any person or entity that could threaten our legal status. That is an overriding priority. Yet, we will never shy away from taking controversial stances (we must never abandon the truth, no matter how unpopular), and we will always confront Jew-hatred, irrespective of its manifestation. We must at all times act strategically, intelligently, and in way that will build up rather than tear down our movement.

Finally, some words about financial support, which I place last because the other factors are more important. JDL has always been run on very modest funding, and that’s a limiting factor insofar as we cannot afford to have employees or even pay our full time directors any consistent wage - in most years it’s more or less a volunteer effort even at the top; we’re lucky to break even on our expenses, and real organizations (as opposed to one-man, self-aggrandizing mini-cults headed by demented crackpots who are insanely jealous of JDL), real organizations do indeed have unavoidable expenses. I only wish our financial picture were half as healthy as a couple of our worst enemies claim to think it is. If we had money to spare as an organization, we would be able to afford proper office space and a paid staff. Perhaps one day soon, BS"D, we will be strong enough to afford such things. A small fraction of what the Establishment Jewish groups take in would be like manna for JDL, but we are not the Establishment, could never be, and must make due with the resources we have.

Thus, JDL is mostly a labor of love. We do this work because it needs to be done, and much of the time we’re doing it for nothing in return other than the satisfaction of sustaining authentic Jewish activism. Here at JDL HQs we have seen solid growth in memberships and other donations since the premier of our new website, and we are very thankful to everyone who contributes their hard earned money to our cause. (A righteous Muslim man even donated generously to JDL this week!) Yet, even the funds raised this year are still very modest.

However, we have some promising ideas related to fundraising, and for now they focus primarily on strengthening our chapters financially. Specifically, soon we will be contacting our JDL leaders to help set up direct PayPal contribution buttons from jdl.org to their chapter PayPal accounts. We will be doing our utmost to promote the funding of our chapters. Part of the promotional effort will be in setting up chapter landing pages, which will provide chapters with a promotional page on jdl.org in which they will be able to promote their chapters, their views and their upcoming events.

Another major item on our agenda is our planned update to our original JDL Movement Handbook. Although some of the content in the original handbook is dated, there is a lot of great, timeless material in it that should be very helpful to us once we get the manual up-to-date.

And we are really proud of our chapters. Internationally, it is important to give special recognition to our Canadian and French national branches who have been doing stellar work. Our returning UK national director Jacob is doing a great job as well. Now one of our key European leaders is lamentably very seriously ill, which we are brokenhearted over. That’s a huge blow dealt to JDL’s European chapters. We pray for him and will work to move forward despite that serious setback. In the US our loyal and dedicated leaders deserve high praise also for their consistent strength on the ground in their communities. It’s also very heartening to report that we are establishing ties with a number of very promising new JDL leaders in the US and Europe who have contacted us just within the last month to get active. Of course, one of our top priorities is to get our New York chapter back off the ground. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, it’s been surprisingly difficult over the years to maintain New York chapters, but we’re going to be devoting major resources to getting things back together there soon.

Yet another important new initiative we will be rolling out is going to be the creation of better channels of communication between us and our chapters - online and telephonically - which we believe will also help our efforts along substantially. We’re also planning a public leadership conference, most likely to be held within the next year.

Now it’s humorous to note that this message was originally only intended to be a paragraph long, but since we now have this great FB platform we may as well use it to communicate in a direct manner with our loyal supporters. Now you have a much better understanding of some of what we’re actively doing and have planned for the near term to grow JDL. JDL has seen ups and downs in its 40+ years and some devastating tribulations this decade, but with all of that behind us, we’re taking major steps forward. As you can see, you can play an integral part in our future victories in a number of different ways. May G-d grant us success in our effort to raise our holy mission to new levels of strength.

B’Ahavat Yisrael,

Ari Rubin
Vice President
Jewish Defense League, Inc.
http://www.jdl.org/

 

October ‘09 JDL Update

October 21 2009 - 7:52:33:am by JDL

JDL is gearing up for a number of important initiatives for this winter. We are preparing a new structure for communication and collaboration with our chapter leaders. We may handle this chiefly online with our new forums (and a forum restricted to leadership), which we’re behind in rolling out but which should be available within a week. We will also be introducing our Chaya Street Squad section along with the opportunity to sign up, so that chapters will be able to call on regional groups of JDL members for support at events. On another important online note, we just got administrative access to the group kindly created for us a number of years ago on Facebook, so JDL will now have an official outlet on the social networking service.

Due to a plumbing issue at our office, our work was disrupted last week. Among other tasks, we are a bit behind in filling membership and other recent orders and appreciate the patience of our members and supporters while we fulfill them. If you have a question about your order status, please email us. We’re also working hard to catch up on our backlogged email, so if you’ve mailed us recently with a matter calling for a response, we apologize and intend to respond to you very soon. Also, if you are a member who has not been given access to our member section, please email us with the request and the user name or email address you registered under.

JDL’s Presence at Arab-American Festival

October 06 2009 - 7:49:15:am by JDL

Last Sunday afternoon (erev Yom Kippur), in an unpublicized JDL event, our organization contracted to have an air sign flown over the Arab American Festival in Anaheim, California. Our air sign sent the simple message - “G-D BLESS AMERICA & ISRAEL - JDL.ORG” and although a decision by air traffic control kept the banner higher in the sky than we would have preferred, we believe we got the message across. Our message was one that patriotic Americans of all faiths should support - given, among other reasons, the fact that Israel is one of America’s closest allies - but we were aware that not everyone in attendance would be all that receptive to our message.

As an unexpected bonus, JDL got to know and become friends with a group of Christians headed by a charismatic Arab Christian who is bravely seeking to spread his view of the dark side of Islam and the reasons why he enthusiastically supports America and Israel.

The group’s leader, George, has an interesting message for Muslims. He tells them what he believes his wrong with their religion and also what is wrong with hating Israel. While George professes love for individual Muslims, he calls Islam an evil faith, one that was in his opinion brought forth out of evil. JDL has a different view of Islam - Judaism teaches that it is one of the world’s great faiths and a valid path to G-d for the non-Jew that disseminates substantial Torah truth to the non-Jewish world. Of course, we also have irreconcilable theological difference and particularly with the Christian desire to convert Jews. But while we may disagree on certain core issues, there is much for us to unite over. In a taped dialog between him and JDL, George explained the knowledge he gained from being a persecuted minority in a Muslim country, including notably his understanding of the Islamic abrogation doctrine that belies the notion that Islam is a religion of peace. Look for more news and content resulting from this important new alliance soon.

September ‘09 JDL Internet Update

September 15 2009 - 2:06:28:pm by JDL

We’re currently working through a backlog of email messages that have built up. If you have recently contacted us at our main address, we are working on replying to you. We are also working on the creation of special email addresses for our members and chapters leaders to use that will result in their messages receiving higher priority. Our organization is growing fast, and we are working hard to accommodate that growth and utilize the our swelling base of supporters. Growth does come with some growing pains, namely the shortage of our staff and our overworked administrators, but we are working through these issues and are always working hard to serve you.

We plan to announce exciting events for the fall and winter soon. If you are a member and cannot log into Members Only, please email our main address with the user name you used when you registered with the site. Also, our member forums should open on or before October 15th; we will email our list subscribers when it is available.

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