Last week, Alexander Heifler, a 26-year-old living in Hoboken, New Jersey, was arrested over an alleged plot to firebomb the home of Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani.
Heifler belonged to a Zionist organization called the JDL 613 Brotherhood, a little-known group that draws inspiration from one of the most notorious Jewish organizations in the U.S. in recent decades — the Jewish Defense League.
What is the Jewish Defense League, how is it connected to current Zionist violence and attacks on Palestine activism, and what is its enduring legacy? Below is a short explainer.
What is the Jewish Defense League?
The Jewish Defense League, or the JDL, is a far-right, pro-Israel organization that was founded in 1968 by Rabbi Meir Kahane, amid racist backlash throughout New York City.
Kahane called for every Jew to be armed and popularized the slogan “Never Again.”
“To turn the other cheek is not a Jewish concept. Do not listen to the soothing anesthesia of the establishment,” he declared. “They walk in the paths of those whose timidity helped bury our brothers and sisters less than thirty years ago.”
Kahane claimed that he created the JDL to protect Jews from antisemitic violence, but its members have been linked to a number of terrorist attacks, murders, and attempted killings.
Its early days were defined by targeted attacks on Soviet establishments, over the country’s alleged antisemitism and ban on Israel emigration.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the group carried out 5 acts of terrorism in 1970 alone, taking over the East Park Synagogue in Manhattan twice to protest the United Nation’s Soviet Mission, dumping blood on a Soviet diplomat, and and planting a smoke bomb in a Carnegie Hall during a performance by the Soviet orchestra.
On February 25, 1994, JDL member Baruch Goldstein, a JDL member opened fire on praying Muslims in Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs, murdering 29 and injuring 125, before he was killed by authorities.
“We feel that Goldstein took a preventative measure against yet another Arab attack on Jews. We understand his motivation, his grief and his actions,” declares the JDL’s website. “And we are not ashamed to say that Goldstein was a charter member of the Jewish Defense League.”
The FBI declared the JDL a “right-wing terrorist group” in 2001.
In 2005 members of the organization were convicted of plot to bomb a Los Angeles mosque and the office of Darrell Issa, an Arab-American member of Congress. The organization’s then-chairman Irv Rubin was one of the men arrested over the plans, but he died by suicide while awaiting trial.
According to the FBI, the organization’s influence has greatly waned in recent years and it has no active chapters. However, it has continued to be linked to acts of violence in recent years. In 2017, Kamal Nayfeh, a 55-year old Palestinian-American, was brutally beaten while walking past an AIPAC conference in Washington, DC.
Who was Meir Kahane?
The JDL’s founder Meir Kahane was an American-Israeli Rabbi, far-right politician, and founder of the Israel’s Kach party.
Born in Brooklyn in 1932, was elected to the Israeli Knesset in 1984 on a platform of expelling Arabs from the country. In a 1985 New York Times article on his popularity, observers lamented his influence in the country.
”Before his election a year ago, Kahane was just an illness; now he is an epidemic,” Van Leer Jerusalem Foundation associate director Alouph Hareven told the Times.
”Kahanism is gaining ground among the youth in all strata, all over the country, from all classes, among the religious and the secular, among Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews,” concluded a report from a right-wing Israeli paper. “It is no longer a socially marginal expression which can be dealt with apologetically. It is turning into a real threat to the future of Israel.”
Despite his impact, Kahane was barred from running for reelection under an anti-racism law.
On November 5, 1990, Kahane was assassinated after giving a speech in Brooklyn. His killer, El Sayyid Nosair, was an Egyptian-born American who was later convicted over his connection to the New York City landmark bomb plot.
The JDL 613 Brotherhood‘s website praises Kahane’s legacy and refers to him as a martyr.
“Rabbi Meir Kahane was more than a leader—he was a modern-day Maccabee, a rabbi who wielded both Torah and action to safeguard Am Yisrael,” it declares. “In a world still plagued by antisemitism and existential threats, his message rings truer than ever: Jewish strength is our salvation. For Kahanists and all true lovers of Israel, Rabbi Kahane remains our guiding light. Never forget, never again!”
Who was Alex Odeh?
On October 11, 1985, Alex Odeh was assassinated in a bombing at the offices American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in Santa Ana, California.
Odeh was the regional director of the organization, in addition to being a Palestinian activist and poet.
Two JDL members, Baruch Ben-Yosef and Keith “Israel” Fuchs, were immediately identified as suspects. However, they were able to return to their homes in Israel without being apprehended. According to leaked FBI memos, Israel obstructed the United State’s government’s investigation into the murder. The memo states that the Israeli government’s responses to FBI requests were “untimely, incomplete, and in certain cases no response was rendered.”
“For Alex’s loved ones, the lack of closure remains an open wound. Arab-Americans of his generation see the case as proof of discrimination, believing the government failed to pursue the killers with full force,” wrote researcher William Youmans at Mondoweiss on the 40th anniversary of his death last year. “It is hard not to see this in the light of the genocide in Gaza: the unsolved case evinces a long-term American institutionalization of Palestinian dehumanization.”
In a 2020 Intercept piece, the journalist David Sheen detailed how Yosef and Fuchs have openly lived in Israel for decades despite being identified as suspects in the murder.
What is Betar US?
Betar US is a the U.S.-based branch of Betar, a Zionist group founded in 1923 by the settler Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Its tactics and strategy often mirror those of the JDL.
The organization has seemingly “rebooted” in the wake of October 7, have confronted Palestine advocates with increasingly aggressive tactics, and have been documented as working with other JDL-inspired groups like the JDL 613 Brotherhood. JDL flags are a consistent staple at their demonstrations and counter-demonstrations.
“Many of us believe that we are living in the days before a potential Holocaust,” Ronn Torossian, the Trump-supporting PR executive who effectively relaunched the group told JTA in 2025. “So we think that it’s OK to stand up to antisemites, and not only is it OK, but we’re going to do it differently than the ADL. The ADL writes position papers. Hillel writes position papers. How are those position papers working out for us?”
The group has doxxed student activists and cheered on the Trump administration’s crackdown on the Palestine movement. According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, the group included Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil on its “deport list” and said ICE was “aware of his home address and whereabouts” shortly before he was arrested in 2025.
Just 2 weeks before Heifler was arrested for plotting to kill Kiswani, she launched a lawsuit against the group under the Anti-KKK Act of 1871.
Kiswani detailed the harassment and the lawsuit in an interview with Democracy Now.
“It alleges that they violated my civil rights by making it impossible for me to participate in public life,” she explained. “They put an $1,800 bounty on my head, saying, ‘We’ll give $1,800 to anyone who hands that jihadi a beeper,’ of course, referencing the Lebanon — the Israeli attack on Lebanese families, children, who’ve been left maimed and disabled. So, it instantly brought my mind back to that and whether this was revenge to that. It brought my mind back to Alex Odeh of the ADC, who was firebombed in his office.”
“His perpetrators, the suspects, also fled to Israel, just like this guy was planning to, and were never..held to justice,” she added. “Nobody was ever jailed for that. There was no accountability.”
According to its website, the JDL 613 Brotherhood “collaborates with organizations like Betar USA and others to amplify our impact.”
