32	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bcalled for Russian Jews. I do not remember the subject bmentioned. Surely, those things do not hurt Russian Jews.”

bHe dropped my hand and did not say a word. Now the bJDL, those who were “murdering” Soviet Jews, had driven bthose who had been so silent for so long to a public “prayer bmeeting” for the first time. Indeed, the gratifying climax to bour efforts to arouse Orthodox Jewry came at a rally for bSoviet Jewry at Forest Hills Stadium in June 1972. There the bson-in-law of the leading Halakic figure in the American byeshiva world read a letter from his father-in-law. The latter bin December 1971 had told a reporter, “Not one Jew has bbeen saved because of these demonstrations. On the con- btrary, they are harming very much.” It was the same ap- bproach he had taken for years ever since he was subject to bfrightful tales from the captive Chief Rabbi of Moscow bthrough an influential New Jersey rabbi. Now, at the Forest bHills Stadium, he told the audience through his letter that b“demonstrations were necessary” and that he had never bopposed them per se, but simply wanted them to be “not banti-Soviet but pro-Jewish.” No matter, we knew what had bcaused the change.

bThe harassment began with cars following Soviet vehicles bthat left the New York Mission, and groups of two and three bJDL people following individual Russians. Some carried bsigns that read, “We are following a Russian swine who boppresses Jews.” The Soviets bitterly complained to the bState Department that they were being called “pigs” and b“the dirtiest four-letter words in the Russian language.” The bNew York Times and every newspaper in the country de- bscribed the “grim game,” as the Times headlined it, that the bJDL was playing with the Russians. The Soviets were fol- blowed into supermarkets, stores, movie theaters, and sim- bply down blocks. “Poshli domoi” (Go home) and “Svoboda bYevreyam” (Freedom for Jews) were the mildest things said to bthem. In the words of Times reporter Kathleen Teltsch, “the bfamilies of the Soviet diplomats say harassment by the bJewish Defense League has altered their lives and made bthem feel at times that they are living under enemy occupa- btion.” According to the angry and frightened Russians, b