As Christians tossed out their trees and tucked away their holiday ornaments after New Year’s, it seemed Jews had similarly laid to rest their animosity for KGO-Radio host Bernie Ward. All except for Irv Rubin.
The Los Angeles-based executive director of the Jewish Defense League was in the Bay Area “to ring the bell…to boycott Ward’s sponsors.
“I want to make Bernie Ward’s life a miserable life,” he said during his recent visit.
Controversy erupted in December when Ward engaged in a discussion with a caller about forgiveness. Ward said because Judaism does not embrace concepts of unconditional forgiveness and redemption, and because victims of the Holocaust could not forgive Hitler, Christianity is therefore “morally superior.”
Ward later apologized for his statements during his 7-to-10 p.m. talk show. He also met with representatives of the Jewish community — although some say he did so grudgingly.
But Rubin said Ward’s apology “isn’t worth anything. It wasn’t good enough for the Anti-Defamation League. It’s certainly not good enough for the JDL.”
The JDL leader was unsuccessful in his efforts to meet with either Ward or Michael Luckoff, KGO president and general manager. But Rubin contends he hasn’t given up the fight.
“I want demonstrations against Ward. He’s an arrogant person,” Rubin said, adding that he is almost equally angry with the Bay Area Jewish community for its lack of response.
“I’m puzzled by this city. There isn’t any real hard-core anger by San Francisco Jewry. They’re just not comprehending the insult,” Rubin said. “There is no firestorm of activity. Where is the protest?”
Last year, Santa Cruz County resident Eli ben (Tom) Cramer revived a defunct Northern California JDL chapter, which Rubin said has about 40 or 50 members.
Nationally, Rubin claims between 6,000 and 7,500 followers of the teachings of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Brooklyn-born rabbi who organized the JDL to teach Jews to defend themselves and who was shot to death in 1990.
Rubin, 51, has served as national chairman since 1985 — a time he refers to as “our heyday.
“We even had a camp in the Catskills for Jewish youngsters who wanted to learn to defend themselves and learn authentic Judaism,” Rubin recalled.
For the future Rubin hopes to “regroup.”
“Militancy made the JDL notorious,” he said. “The average Jew hears JDL and has a heart attack. I’m not trying to be the ADL or B’nai B’rith. But we frightened too many Jews.”
Rubin points to a national Web site on the Internet and hopes to start a camp again. He talks about members exuding menschlichkeit (human decency).
In the same breath Rubin talks about training young Jews with rifles and in karate. “It’s better to know how to use them and not have to than to have to use them and not know how,” he said.
And he boasts that the Los Angeles Police Department refers Jews to him when they move into non-Jewish neighborhoods and experience problems.
“We’ve slept on the floors with baseball bats,” Rubin said, adding,”There comes a time to take off the kid gloves and tell people, `If you’re getting down in the gutter, we’ll get down there too.'”
The enemy isn’t just Christianity or Bernie Ward or Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan or Jews for Jesus, according to Rubin. It’s American Jewry itself.
“It would be better if there was no JDL. But with the Bernie Wards, Louis Farrakhans and Jews who don’t care, someone’s got to hock a chainik [bang on the teakettle or nag],” Rubin said. “There’s a silent Holocaust. Ninety percent of our people are disappearing. We have to tackle those in the community who are hurting us.
“America is a graveyard for Jews. I want to awaken the Jewish lion out there and continue the legacy of Rabbi Kahane.”