Meir Kahane

Meir Kahane was born in 1932 in Brooklyn

Kahane was born Martin David Kahane in Brooklyn in 1932 to an Orthodox rabbinic family. His father was born in Safed and his mother in Latvia. As a youth he was active in Betar and Bnei Akiva.

He studied at the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn and received rabbinical ordination there. He earned a B.A. in political science from Brooklyn College in 1954, a law degree from New York Law School and an M.A. in international relations from New York University. In 1956 he married Libby Blum, and they had 4 children.

In 1958 he became rabbi of the Howard Beach Jewish Center in Queens, and he wrote for The Jewish Press for the rest of his life. In 1968 he founded the Jewish Defense League in New York. He was convicted in the United States of offenses that included conspiring to bomb the Iraqi embassy in Washington.

In 1971 he moved to Israel and founded Kach, which called for expelling Arabs. In 1980 he was jailed for 6 months for planning attacks against Palestinians. He won a Knesset seat in 1984, but Kach was barred from the 1988 elections after its aims were ruled racist.

In 1987 he founded the Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea. In 1990 he was assassinated in New York by El Sayyid Nosair while giving a speech. He was buried in Jerusalem.