Jewish Defense League

The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a far-right religious and political organization in the United States and Canada. Its stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary"; it has been classified as "right-wing terrorist group" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) since 2001, and is also designated as hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. According to the FBI, the JDL has been involved in plotting and executing acts of terrorism within the United States. Most terrorist watch groups classify the group as inactive as of 2015.

Founded by Meir Kahane in New York City in 1968, the JDL's self-described purpose was to protect Jews from local manifestations of antisemitism. Its criticism of the Soviet Union increased local support for the group, transforming it from a "vigilante club" into an organization with a stated membership numbering over 15,000 at one point. The group took to bombing Arab and Soviet properties in the United States while assassinating a variety of alleged "enemies of the Jewish people" ranging from Arab-American political activists to neo-Nazis. A number of JDL members have been linked to violent, and sometimes deadly, attacks in the United States and in other countries, including the murder of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee regional director Alex Odeh in 1985, the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in 1994, and a plot to assassinate Darrell Issa in 2001. In 1990, Kahane was assassinated by an Egyptian-American gunman at a hotel in New York City.

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