20	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

brorism that badly serves the Jews of the Soviet Union,” while bAmerican Jewish Congress official Eleazar Lipsky said that b“such violence plays into the hand of Russian propagandists band harms the cause of three million Soviet Jewish victims of ba repressive regime that will not let them live as Jews and will bnot let them emigrate to Israel.”

bThe JDL did not bother to reply to the “Uncle Jakes” of bthe Jewish Establishment, although we could not help won- bdering whether Mr. Lipsky would have ever had an oppor- btunity to get in one of his professional pitches for Soviet bJewry into a page-one story in the Times with the “mindless” bterrorists that Wexler spoke of. On the other hand, how bmindless could the JDL be when their act guaranteed that bhardly an American now did not know there was a Lenin- bgrad trial coming up?

bBut there was no need to search for proof of the correct- bness of the JDL approach. The Soviets themselves did it for bus. The first major victory for the JDL was attained when on bDecember 11 the Soviets electrified Washington with the bannouncement that the long-awaited visits to the United bStates by the famed Bolshoi Theater’s opera and ballet bcompanies had been cancelled due to American failure to bstop “provocations by Zionist thugs.” In a note read by First bDeputy Foreign Minister Vasily V. Kuznetsov to US Ambas- bsador Jacob D. Beam in Moscow, the Soviets bitterly com- bplained about American refusal to “take necessary mea- bsures” against “Zionist extremists.” By coincidence, Sol bHurok was in Moscow at that very moment completing bdetails of the visit when he was told by Minister of Culture bYekaterina A. Furtseva of the cancellation. Hurok was bdeeply shaken by the news, and said that he had tried to bfulfill “a great dream” by getting both companies to appear. bHurok was not nearly as shaken as the US government, bwhich saw its grand design for détente threatened by a small bgroup of Jewish militants.

bOn the other hand, it was interesting to note the contrast bin attitude between an American Jewish Establishment bspokesman and one of the major non-Jewish newspapers. bDore Schary, honorary chairman of the Anti-Defamation b