36	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bJanuary 8 (as if anyone would have remotely imagined that bthey were capable of it!). The letters declared that “such birresponsible and criminal actions must be stopped.”

bNixon concurred with them: “All decent and law-abiding bAmericans [presumably including the President and Vice bPresident] share your outrage at recent criminal acts of bviolence against Soviet facilities in this country.”

bAnd then the President wrote something that no other bPresident ever had before. He joined; he wrote, “in urging bfreedom of emigration for Soviet Jews,” adding that acts of bviolence and lawlessness “will not advance our common bcause.” Nixon and the Jewish Establishment simply over- blooked the fact that he would have called it “our” common bcause if it were not for the violence and lawlessness.

bThe first step in the campaign of the government to stop bJDL came on January 12 as I was arrested on a bench bwarrant for failure to appear for a hearing on my December b27 arrest. Ordinarily, my reason for not appearing—the fact bthat I had been in Israel—would have been accepted, but bthese were not ordinary times. Assistant District Attorney bFrank Rogers demanded the unheard of bail of $7,500, badding that “something has to change radically from the bway he is conducting himself toward the court and the bstate.” Judge Anthony Marra set bail at $3,000 and warned bme to “behave yourself.” The day before, the New York Post bhad headlined its front page, “Lindsay Orders Crackdown bon JDL.” After my arrest, City Hall issued a statement that it bwas “just a coincidence.”

bImmediately upon my release, I told the press that “I bapplaude the harassment, the bombings, and any other bthings that can be done to save the three and one-half bmillion Jews in Communist Russia.” I not only refused to badmit that the international uproar was a bad thing, but basserted that “for the first time in fifty-three years the Soviet bJewish problem is Page One throughout the country and we bare responsible for that.” In reply to a question as to whether bwe were worried about the threats by federal and city bofficials to crackdown on us—Rogers had told Judge Marra bthat the city was planning to bring two indictments before bthe grand jury and Mayor Lindsay had assigned one Marvin b