When you think about Jewish leader Irv Rubin, don't even think of a nebbish hiding under his yarmulke. A nebbish is a person without a backbone, a person so humble that anyone can walk on him. When it comes to Irv, think fists flying, think bloody noses, think screaming and shouting. Just don't think nebbish.

When Irv, national chairman of the Jewish Defense League, is on his mission from God, it's a no-holds barred contest of muscle, of brawn over brains in the heavyweight bout to save the Jewish population. On Nov. 24, when Irv showed up on the campus of Pasadena City College, the day proved to be no different than any other for the JDL chief. Where Irv roams, controversy follows.

On his way to a humanities class headed by Associate Professor Michelle Ireland Galman, Irv was met by protesters who called him a terrorist and racist. "Me? A terrorist, a racist?" Irv asked, still stinging from the anti-Rubin contingent who attempted to rally students against him. It was enough to get him all ferklempt.

There he was to speak to a classroom about the aftermath of the Holocaust; this was his third year speaking at PCC on the issue. Never before had he received this kind of welcome. "I've been blocked, I've been censored, but how can anybody call me a racist?" Irv asked incredulously. "It's the nuttiest thing I ever heard in my life."

Sure, he admits he's a bit on the aggressive side in his battle against persecution, but he's not a terrorist. Come on, now! It's called chutzpah. That's what Irv and his lean, mean Chaya Squad are all about. Chutzpah. And this is on a slow day.

Irv first joined the JDL in 1971 and was soon appointed to the post of West Coast coordinator. In 1985, Irv was asked to succeed Rabbi Meir Kahane, who in 1968 founded the League, which would become known as the most controversial, yet perhaps most effective of all Jewish organizations. In 1990, Kahane was assassinated.

The League's motto, "Never Again," epitomizes the activist belief that opposes the opinion that Jews should not fight back when under attack, says Irv. Because of such an atrocious attitude, six million Jews, determined as undesirables by Nazi Germany, were murdered during World War II. Genug iz Genug. Enough is enough. Never again, according to Irv. To his death he will fight to defend not only himself, but his greatest cause: the Jewish nation.

The JDL holds five principles near to their heart.

• Ahavat Yisroel: Love of Jewry.
• Hadar: Dignity. Pride in the Jewish tradition, faith, culture, land, history, strength, pain and peoplehood.
• Barzel: Iron. The need to both move to help Jews everywhere and to change the Jewish image through sacrifice and all necessary means, even strength, force and violence.
• Mishmaat: Discipline and dedication. This creates within the Jew the knowledge that they can and will do whatever must be done.
• Bitachon: Faith in the indestructibility of the Jewish people.

"I represent what I believe is authentic Jewry," he says proudly of ancestors who kicked major Philistine tuchis after the Israeli exodus from Ancient Egypt and entrace into the Promised Land, oh say about 3,000 years ago. That's some legend to live up to.

But Irv, he's the same sort. A Kemfer. A warrior with a mission. A mission to stop the annihilation of his people: the Jews. "The Jewish MO is to be ultraliberal, a yellow dog Democrat," Irv says. That's utter dreck to the Chairman. A yellow dog Democrat, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is a Democrat who would vote for a yellow dog any day before they would vote for a Republican.

And the slogans of warfare trip off his tongue as easily as saying what he had for breakfast. "I want every Jew, a .22. Keep alive with a 45," Irv recited, laughing at the rhythmic speech pattern in contrast to the violent imagery.

"I'm a minority within a minority," he raves proudly in one breath as he describes himself a conservative Goldwater Republican. He's proud to say that he's running in the March primary for the seat in the 24th Congressional District. "I'm a great rarity," he boasts. "I'm pro-Second Amendment. Gun control is for good people and when you take guns away from good people, bad people will have guns."

He'll have a helluva run mostly against his own people, but he still wants his fellow Jews to get up off their knees and get into the thick of things. "Here in America you can take the Jew out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of the Jew," Irv says.

A hulking figure, Irv is no nebbish. And there's no mistaking him for one, either. This Kemfer stands against oppression, stands against racism, stands against terrorism. . . . To him, it's the life of his ancestors that he's keeping alive. And any former enemy of his people is an enemy forever.

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Note to Readers: The above is not a news story but a column. The opinions expressed in it -- especially the last sentence -- are those of the author.