232	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bbecause of the topic, the major American Jewish groups b“would move heaven and earth to prevent” me from speak- bing. Our final words were: “We are convinced that the Jews bof the world are not ready for another Brussels.”

bOur protest to the WZO was also rejected, whereupon the bIsraeli JDL’s secretary-general Yosef Schneider told the bpress flatly: “One Brussels was enough. JDL will appear at bthe Congress and Rabbi Kahane will speak.”

bAs the confrontation approached, interest in it grew. M.Z. bFrank, writing in the Jewish Post and Opinion under the bheading “Goldmann, Kahane, and Zionist Congress,” dis- bcussed the refusal to allow me and Dr. Nahum Goldmann, bPresident of the World Jewish Congress, to speak. Gold- bmann was barred because in a speech in London, he had bdeviated from the official view that the Soviet Jewish strug- bgle must involve a call for emigration to Israel only, and binstead insisted that there should also be a struggle for the brights of Soviet Jews who wished to remain in the USSR. bWhether one agreed with Goldmann or not—and I did bnot—the refusal to allow him to speak because he held a bdeviant view was symptomatic of the totalitarian mentality bof the Israeli leadership. Frank wrote:

b“One of the main attractions of the coming Zionist Con- bgress is likely to be nonconfrontation between two leading bnonspeakers—Dr. Nahum Goldmann, who represents the bmovement’s forgotten past and Rabbi Meir Kahane, who brepresents what he says is the tide of the future.... Ameri- bcan Jewry is doomed, he [Kahane] claims, and American bJews have no future in America and should save themselves bby settling in Israel.”

bThe New York Times, in a major article by Peter Grose on bthe eve of the Congress opening, wrote: “The leadership bfinds itself at odds with two of the best-known Jewish bspokesmen, Dr. Nahum Goldmann . . . and Rabbi Meir bKahane, who is determined to attend and speak although he bhas been declared unwelcome. Both consider themselves bZionists but their views have been declared out of step with bwhat the leadership says Zionism now represents [sic].” This bwas a sample of the freedom within the Zionist movement.