Jewish Defense League

[ joo-ish di-fens leeg ]

noun

1. an organization of militant Jewish activists, founded in 1968 in the United States to combat antisemitism and defend Jewish interests worldwide. : JDL

Example Sentences

Leiter—who was born in the United States and was, in his youth, a part of the militant nationalist Jewish Defense League founded by Meir Kahane—previously was the prime minister’s chief of staff.

From Slate

Like many settlers, Leiter grew up in the United States, where he joined Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense League, which was founded in the late 1960s initially to quell antisemitism but eventually grew into a radical organization calling for the violent expulsion of Palestinians from all of Israel.

From Slate

Kahane is related to Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Brooklyn-born founder of the Jewish Defense League, a group that advocated for the removal of Arabs from Israel and orchestrated a string of violent attacks in the U.S. and abroad.

From Seattle Times

Kahane’s political party was banned from the Israeli parliament in the 1980s, and the U.S. classified the Jewish Defense League as a terrorist group.

From Seattle Times

Reached by phone on Wednesday afternoon, Reuven Kahane, who lives in the Manhattan neighborhood where the protest took place, declined to comment on the events leading up to his arrest, but he said he had no link the Jewish Defense League.

From Seattle Times