224	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bdecided to “give them the ball rather than make trouble.” bBut change was taking place.

bI once said that one of the two major contributions of the bJewish Defense League had been to serve as a catalyst and a bprod, forcing the established groups to act despite them- bselves and pulling them into the battle for Jews that they bwould never have fought otherwise. Nowhere was this more bclearly seen than in the struggle for Jewish Power and bJewish priorities. The Jewish Establishment was worried; it bwas coming under heavier fire with each passing week from bits own people who wanted to know why the JDL said and bdid things and they did not. It feared loss of membership, bloss of funds, loss of prestige, loss of leadership role. We bannoyed them, we angered them, we gave them no rest. We btold the truth about the situation and the truth about the bfraud of Jewish leadership, and in spite of themselves those bleaders had to act. The Jewish Defense League gadfly had btaken stands that the Establishment had long considered banathema, and was forcing them to join us in the fight for bthem.

bIn November 1972 the first annual convention of the bNational Jewish Civil Rights Council met in New York to bcondemn Jewish leaders for “abandoning Jews.” This was bnot a JDL group. To the contrary, it boasted a whole host of brespectable figures, including Seymour Siegel, Professor of bTheology at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Jacob bPetuchowski, Reform Judaism’s leading thinkers, Dr. David bSidorsky and Rabbi Joseph Grunblatt. It was interesting to bhear the statements and resolutions that emerged from the bconvention. Petuchowski declared that the presupposition bof Jewish ethics is that Jews come first. “Nothing,” he said, b“is more inept than the invocation of Jewish ethics by way of bcondemning those of us who want to preserve the character bof our neighborhoods or protect the position we have ob- btained in academic or professional life or maintain the merit bsystem for our children’s entrance into colleges or univer- bsities or ask for the rigid enforcement of laws to safeguard bour property and our very lives.” He added that “those who badvocate Jewish self-abnegation do so in the name of what- b