Mordechai Levy
Encyclopedia
Mark "Mordechai" Levy is a U.S.-based political activist and founder of the militant Jewish Defense Organization
(JDO), a breakaway faction of the Jewish Defense League
. David Tell of the Weekly Standard wrote that the group is "located at the farthest, shadowy margins of American public life." Levy has also organized a paramilitary training camp located in Upstate New York, named after Revisionist Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky.
to form the Jewish Defense Organization
. After a bomb at the California offices American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee killed its West Coast director, Alex Odeh
, both the Jewish Defense League
and the Jewish Defense Organization
came under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Two weeks earlier, according to the New York Times, The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's New York office appeared on a list entitled "Enemies of the Jewish People" handed out in Washington, DC by Levy. Levy was quoted in a UPI report denying responsibility for the murder: "We had no hand in this, but this man deserved what he got." Asked about the attacks by the New York Times, Levy said "We aren't claiming credit, but it couldn't happen to better people, more deserving people. They're getting a taste of their own medicine."
Levy was charged with four counts of attempted murder and other charges after he opened fire on late JDL leader Irv Rubin
in 1989, hitting an innocent bystander. Rubin was attempting to serve a subpoena on Levy. Levy was acquitted of all charges except one count of felony assault with a deadly weapon, for which he served 18 months of a 4½ year sentence.
Levy pleaded guilty in 2000 to unrelated charges that he assaulted a 12 year-old boy in New York State.
Levy collects information on neo-Nazis, the KKK and Arab organizations. A 1989 Village Voice article on Jewish militants reported:
), Levy came forward with information to help the victims in their attempt to win justice, although he did not agree with their Marxist politics. Paul Bermanzohn, one of the survivors of the neo-Nazi attack, recalled the efforts to establish in court that the FBI had possessed advance knowledge of the plot:
organization on a part-time basis from 1980–84 as a security consultant and supplied disinformation that convinced some of LaRouche's security staffers of plots against their leader. After Levy revealed his deception, the LaRouchians described him as a "chaos agent."
Levy has said that the JDO has a membership of 3,000 members, but monitors of Jewish extremist groups say only about a dozen people are actively involved at any one time. A 1992 feature in the Jerusalem Report notes that "Journalists and extremist-group monitors who have followed Levy's career say the Jewish Defense Organization exists mainly in his mind, that his hardcore following is at most a few dozen Orthodox teenagers."
to attempt to disrupt the campaign of David Duke
, the former Klan leader, for the state legislature. An initial rally planned for the Congregation Beth Israel
was canceled after the synagogue's Rabbi Gavriel Newman noted Levy's statements that the JDO would not rule out violence in its efforts against Duke. Levy held a small rally against Duke the following month. Duke ultimately won in a run-off by 227 votes. Some Jewish leaders held Levy responsible for the victory. According to New Orleans Jewish Federation director Jane Buchsbaum, "there was a strong belief that Mordechai's interference helped create those 227 votes." Leonard Zeskind of the Center for Democratic Renewal, which monitors right-wing extremism, said Levy "went down there and carried on like a character out of central casting for a crazed New York Jew. I'm sure there were 227 people who voted for Duke just to get at Mordechai Levy. I hold him personally responsible for the election of David Duke."
member) Steven Rombom, for which Rombom would ultimately sue Levy and the JDO for in 1997 alleging defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and incitement to violence., for his incessant attacks against ADL founder Abraham Foxman
and others. Along with JDO activist A. J. Weberman
, also known for his activism in the Youth International Party
(Yippies,) Levy and the JDO were successfully sued for libel more recently and fined $850,000.http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/623rbipi.asp?pg=2
Levy claims to have done investigative work on such figures as American neo-Nazi Harold Covington
and of Steven Hatfill
, the one-time person of interest
in the as-of-yet unsolved 2001 anthrax attacks
; on the apparently ultra orthodox, and self proclaimed anti-Zionist Rabbi Moshe Aryeh Friedman
,; and on the reputed Pakistani terror cult Jamaat ul-Fuqra.
Jewish Defense Organization
The Jewish Defense Organization is a militant Jewish organization in the United States.-Background and ideology:The JDO was founded in the early 1980s by Mordechai Levy after a violent feud with the Jewish Defense League's former leader Irv Rubin, who was killed or committed suicide in jail in 2002...
(JDO), a breakaway faction of the Jewish Defense League
Jewish Defense League
The Jewish Defense League is a Jewish organization whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary"...
. David Tell of the Weekly Standard wrote that the group is "located at the farthest, shadowy margins of American public life." Levy has also organized a paramilitary training camp located in Upstate New York, named after Revisionist Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky.
Early attention
Levy first came to public attention after he was arrested in 1981 in Los Angeles on a charge of firebombing a Nigerian diplomat's car that was parked near the Soviet U.N. Mission. Three days earlier, Levy was arrested after attacking a Latvian, alleged to be a Nazi war criminal, in a courtroom as he was fighting deportation.Jewish Defense Organization
By the mid-1980s, Levy had left the Jewish Defense LeagueJewish Defense League
The Jewish Defense League is a Jewish organization whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary"...
to form the Jewish Defense Organization
Jewish Defense Organization
The Jewish Defense Organization is a militant Jewish organization in the United States.-Background and ideology:The JDO was founded in the early 1980s by Mordechai Levy after a violent feud with the Jewish Defense League's former leader Irv Rubin, who was killed or committed suicide in jail in 2002...
. After a bomb at the California offices American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee killed its West Coast director, Alex Odeh
Alex Odeh
Alex Odeh was an Arab-American anti-discrimination activist who was killed in a bombing as he opened the door of his office at 1905 East 17th Street, Santa Ana, California...
, both the Jewish Defense League
Jewish Defense League
The Jewish Defense League is a Jewish organization whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary"...
and the Jewish Defense Organization
Jewish Defense Organization
The Jewish Defense Organization is a militant Jewish organization in the United States.-Background and ideology:The JDO was founded in the early 1980s by Mordechai Levy after a violent feud with the Jewish Defense League's former leader Irv Rubin, who was killed or committed suicide in jail in 2002...
came under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
Two weeks earlier, according to the New York Times, The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's New York office appeared on a list entitled "Enemies of the Jewish People" handed out in Washington, DC by Levy. Levy was quoted in a UPI report denying responsibility for the murder: "We had no hand in this, but this man deserved what he got." Asked about the attacks by the New York Times, Levy said "We aren't claiming credit, but it couldn't happen to better people, more deserving people. They're getting a taste of their own medicine."
Levy was charged with four counts of attempted murder and other charges after he opened fire on late JDL leader Irv Rubin
Irv Rubin
Irving D. Rubin was chairman of the Jewish Defense League from 1985 to 2002. He allegedly committed suicide in jail when awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy to bomb private and government property....
in 1989, hitting an innocent bystander. Rubin was attempting to serve a subpoena on Levy. Levy was acquitted of all charges except one count of felony assault with a deadly weapon, for which he served 18 months of a 4½ year sentence.
Levy pleaded guilty in 2000 to unrelated charges that he assaulted a 12 year-old boy in New York State.
Levy collects information on neo-Nazis, the KKK and Arab organizations. A 1989 Village Voice article on Jewish militants reported:
His [Levy's] uncanny ability to track down KKK members and neo-Nazis astounded federal officials. "Levy does appear to possess membership lists of neo-Nazi groups and KKK members across the U.S.," a confidential FBI memorandum reported.
Greensboro massacre
After the massacre of five left-wing anti-Klan demonstrators by Klansmen and neo-Nazis in Greensboro, N.C. in 1979 (an incident known as the Greensboro massacreGreensboro massacre
The Greensboro massacre occurred on November 3, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. Five protest marchers were shot and killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party...
), Levy came forward with information to help the victims in their attempt to win justice, although he did not agree with their Marxist politics. Paul Bermanzohn, one of the survivors of the neo-Nazi attack, recalled the efforts to establish in court that the FBI had possessed advance knowledge of the plot:
Most incriminating of all was an affidavit from Mordechai Levy of the Jewish Defense Organization. When Levy got his FBI file through the Freedom of Information Act, he found an entry dated November 2, 1979, the day before the massacre. In it, the FBI reported that Levy told one of their agents, "I have information that Harold CovingtonHarold CovingtonHarold Armstead Covington is an American white supremacist, political activist and novelist. He advocates the creation of an "Aryan homeland" in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States....
of the National Socialist Party of AmericaNational Socialist Party of AmericaThe National Socialist Party of America was a Chicago-based organization founded in 1970 by Frank Collin shortly after he left the National Socialist White People's Party. The NSWPP had been the American Nazi Party until shortly after the assassination of leader George Lincoln Rockwell in 1967...
is up to heavy illegal activity. Covington has been training in the Jefferson County area with illegal weapons. He and his group have plans to attack and possibly kill people at an anti-Klan gathering this week in North Carolina."
LaRouche
Levy infiltrated the Lyndon LaRoucheLyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
organization on a part-time basis from 1980–84 as a security consultant and supplied disinformation that convinced some of LaRouche's security staffers of plots against their leader. After Levy revealed his deception, the LaRouchians described him as a "chaos agent."
Levy has said that the JDO has a membership of 3,000 members, but monitors of Jewish extremist groups say only about a dozen people are actively involved at any one time. A 1992 feature in the Jerusalem Report notes that "Journalists and extremist-group monitors who have followed Levy's career say the Jewish Defense Organization exists mainly in his mind, that his hardcore following is at most a few dozen Orthodox teenagers."
David Duke
In 1989, Levy traveled to LouisianaLouisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
to attempt to disrupt the campaign of David Duke
David Duke
David Ernest Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan an American activist and writer, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative. He was also a former candidate in the Republican presidential primaries in 1992, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in...
, the former Klan leader, for the state legislature. An initial rally planned for the Congregation Beth Israel
Congregation Beth Israel (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Congregation Beth Israel is a Modern Orthodox synagogue located in Louisiana. Founded in 1903 or 1904, though tracing its roots back to 1857, it is the oldest Orthodox congregation in the New Orleans region...
was canceled after the synagogue's Rabbi Gavriel Newman noted Levy's statements that the JDO would not rule out violence in its efforts against Duke. Levy held a small rally against Duke the following month. Duke ultimately won in a run-off by 227 votes. Some Jewish leaders held Levy responsible for the victory. According to New Orleans Jewish Federation director Jane Buchsbaum, "there was a strong belief that Mordechai's interference helped create those 227 votes." Leonard Zeskind of the Center for Democratic Renewal, which monitors right-wing extremism, said Levy "went down there and carried on like a character out of central casting for a crazed New York Jew. I'm sure there were 227 people who voted for Duke just to get at Mordechai Levy. I hold him personally responsible for the election of David Duke."
Rutgers
Levy and the JDO's involvement led to accusations that the group inflamed divisions at Rutgers University in 1995, where African American students had protested against comments made by then-President Francis L. Lawrence that were perceived as anti-Black. The JDO accused the protesting Black students of themselves being racist and anti-Semitic. Levy's involvement was met apprehension by some members of the Rutgers Jewish community. Rabbi Norman Weitzner of Rutgers Hillel felt there was no anti-Semitism involved and noted "The JDO sees anti-Semitism at the drop of a hat, when it may not actually exist." The interim director of Rutgers Hillel said at the time that Levy "thinks he's going to wake up the Jewish students. What's going to happen is that he's going to start a racial war."Legal conflicts
Levy is also known for his running legal battles with independent licensed investigator and noted electronic privacy researcher (and former JDOJewish Defense Organization
The Jewish Defense Organization is a militant Jewish organization in the United States.-Background and ideology:The JDO was founded in the early 1980s by Mordechai Levy after a violent feud with the Jewish Defense League's former leader Irv Rubin, who was killed or committed suicide in jail in 2002...
member) Steven Rombom, for which Rombom would ultimately sue Levy and the JDO for in 1997 alleging defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and incitement to violence., for his incessant attacks against ADL founder Abraham Foxman
Abraham Foxman
Abraham H. Foxman is the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League.-Early life:Foxman, an only son, was born in Baranovichi, just months after the USSR took the town from Poland in the Nazi-Soviet Pact and incorporated it into the BSSR. The town is now in Belarus...
and others. Along with JDO activist A. J. Weberman
A. J. Weberman
Alan Jules Weberman , better known as A. J. Weberman, is an American writer, political activist/gadfly, and popularizer of the terms garbology and "Dylanology." He is best known for his controversial personal confrontations with the musician Bob Dylan and for his 30-year involvement with the...
, also known for his activism in the Youth International Party
Youth International Party
The Youth International Party, whose members were commonly called Yippies, was a radically youth-oriented and countercultural revolutionary offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the 1960s. It was founded on Dec. 31, 1967...
(Yippies,) Levy and the JDO were successfully sued for libel more recently and fined $850,000.http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/623rbipi.asp?pg=2
Levy claims to have done investigative work on such figures as American neo-Nazi Harold Covington
Harold Covington
Harold Armstead Covington is an American white supremacist, political activist and novelist. He advocates the creation of an "Aryan homeland" in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States....
and of Steven Hatfill
Steven Hatfill
Steven Jay Hatfill is an American physician, virologist and bio-weapons expert who underwent what was considered by many to be a trial by media with great toll on his personal and professional life...
, the one-time person of interest
Person of interest
"Person of interest" is a phrase used by law enforcement when announcing the name of someone involved in a criminal investigation who has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime. The phrase was adopted by the media and widely disseminated, thus most law enforcement agencies have picked up...
in the as-of-yet unsolved 2001 anthrax attacks
2001 anthrax attacks
The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to...
; on the apparently ultra orthodox, and self proclaimed anti-Zionist Rabbi Moshe Aryeh Friedman
Moshe Aryeh Friedman
Moshe Aryeh Friedman currently living in Vienna, Austria is a former anti-Zionist political activist. He is best known for his participation in the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust held in 2006 in Tehran, Iran...
,; and on the reputed Pakistani terror cult Jamaat ul-Fuqra.