[10] The group took to bombing Arab and Soviet properties in the United States[11] while assassinating a variety of alleged "enemies of the Jewish people" ranging from Arab-American political activists to neo-Nazis.

[14] According to the Anti-Defamation League, the JDL consists only of "thugs and hooligans"[15] and Kahane "preached a radical form of Jewish nationalism which reflected racism, violence, and political extremism,"[4] attitudes that were replicated by his successor Irv Rubin.

A land founded on the principles of democracy and freedom has given unprecedented opportunities to a people devoted to those ideals" yet now finds itself threatened by "political extremism" and "racist militancy."

Furthermore, the manifesto stated that the organization rejects all hate and illegality, believes firmly in law and order, backs police forces and will work actively in the courts to strike down all discrimination.

[22] When asked about Jewish Defense League members breaking the law, Kahane responded: "We respect the right and the obligation of the American government to prosecute us and send us to jail.

A similar slogan was painted on the walls of the office of Tass, the Soviet news agency, in Rockefeller Plaza, which was invaded by Rabbi Kahane and four other JDL members.

[41] On May 19, the JDL issued a statement attacking American Jewish organizations which opposed the Vietnam War, accusing them of doing more to destroy the State of Israel "than all the Arab armies.

[45] On August 16, 400 JDL members began a week-long march from Philadelphia to Washington on behalf of Soviet Jewry, concluding with a rally at Lafayette Park urging President Nixon to "stand tall and firm in the Middle East as you have done elsewhere."

[46] On September 27, two JDL members were arrested at Kennedy Airport while attempting to board a London-bound plane armed with four loaded guns and a live hand grenade.

"[51] On December 30, several hundred JDL members participated in a rally for Soviet Jewry in Foley square, chanting "Let My People Go," "Open Up the Iron Door" and "Never Again!

One of the signatories, Dov Sperling, claimed that the recent cancellation of the Bolshoi Ballet's scheduled American tour was forced by the JDL and hailed it as the first public surrender by Soviet authorities to Jewish pressure.

[52] On January 19, twenty JDL members had conducted a half-hour sit-in at the offices of Columbia Artists Inc. in Manhattan, leaving only after they were assured a meeting would be set up with the company's president in the near future.

[53] In 1972, two JDL members were arrested and convicted of bomb possession and burglary in an attempt to blow up the Long Island residence of the Soviet Mission to the United Nations.

In 1973, threatening phone calls made to the home of Ralph Riskin, one of the producers of Bridget Loves Bernie, resulted in the arrest of Robert S. Manning,[55] described as a member of the JDL.

[57] In 1975, JDL leader Meir Kahane was accused of conspiracy to kidnap a Soviet diplomat, bomb the Iraqi embassy in Washington, and ship arms abroad from Israel.

[4] On December 31, 1975, 15 members of the League seized the office of the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in protest for Pope Paul VI's policy of support of Palestinian rights.

"[31][60] The attacks, which caused minor diplomatic crisis in relations between the U.S. and the USSR, prompted the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to infiltrate the group and one undercover officer discovered a chain of weapon caches across Brooklyn, containing "enough shotguns and rifles to arm a small militia.

On October 11, 1985, Alex Odeh, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), was killed in a mail bombing at his office in Santa Ana, California.

In 1987, Floyd Clarke, then assistant director of the FBI, wrote in an internal memo that key suspects had fled to Israel and were living in the West Bank urban settlement of Kiryat Arba.

"[67] The FBI documents refer to the JDL death threats and extortion scheme but do not make a direct connection between the group and the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur.

On November 4, 2002, at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, Rubin slit his throat with a safety razor and jumped out of a third story window.

[77] The core of the evidence against Krugel and Rubin was in a number of conversations taped by an informant, Danny Gillis, who was hired by the men to plant the bombs but who turned to the FBI instead.

[14] In 2002, in France, attackers from Betar and Ligue de Défense Juive (LDJ) violently assaulted Jewish demonstrators from Peace Now, journalists, police officers (one of whom was stabbed), and Arab bystanders.

"[83] In June 2014, two LDJ supporters were sentenced to prison in France for targeting the car of Jonathan Moadab, the Jewish co-founder of the blog "Cercle des Volontaires (Circle of Volunteers)", with a home-made bomb in September 2012.

[88] On November 12, 2023, during the March for the Republic and Against Antisemitism members of the French JDL division, Ligue de Défense Juive, assaulted a person who was protesting against Marine Le Pen and attacked demonstrators from the Golem collective.

Furthermore, they noted that "we teach that violence is never a good solution but is unfortunately sometimes necessary as a last resort when innocent lives are threatened; we therefore view Dr. Goldstein as a martyr in Judaism's protracted struggle against Arab terrorism.

"[105][106][107] In a similar attack nearly twelve years earlier, on April 11, 1982, an American-born JDL member and immigrant to Israel, Alan Harry Goodman, opened fire with his military-issue rifle at the Dome of the Rock on the sacred Temple Mount in Jerusalem, killing one Palestinian Arab and injuring four others.

[108] In a 2004 congressional testimony, John S. Pistole, executive assistant director for counterterrorism and counterintelligence for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) described the JDL as "a known violent extremist Jewish organization.

Long-time JDL chairman Irv Rubin died in 2002 in a Los Angeles federal detention center "after allegedly cutting his throat with a jail-issued razor and then jumping or falling over a railing and plummeting to his death."

[134] Rav Yehuda HaKohen, a leader in the Hebrew Universalist VISION movement, is a former JDL member and has cited Kahanism as an inspiration behind his ideological beliefs.