B'nai Elim

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B'nai Elim (Sons of the Mighty) is a Jewish organization founded in 2006 by the former successors to Irv Rubin in the Jewish Defense League, which was originally founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane. Its Chairman is Matthew Finberg. This group claims that it is a moderate Kahanist organization. They claim to be the "former moderate and politically conservative leadership" of JDL. B'nai Elim has 35 active chapters in the United States as well as chapters in the U.K., Canada, Australia, Germany, Russia, France, the Netherlands, and Israel. William Maniaci, the predecesor to Finberg as JDL Chairman, is the Chief of Intelligence and Security for B'nai Elim.

[edit] Controversy

B'nai Elim Chairman Matthew Finberg started a controversy when he and other supporters of B'nai Elim heckled Chaim Ben Pesach of JTF while Chaim was speaking at a protest rally in Washington, D.C. against Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his plan to remove Jews from Judea and Samaria. B'nai Elim removed Chaim in the middle of his speech claiming it was "for his own protection from the hecklers". JTF says that that is absurd since B'nai Elim were the ones doing the heckling. JTF also denies that B'nai Elim is a Kahanist organization since it condemns Chaim's bombing campaign to free Soviet Jewry when he was JDL Chairman while Rabbi Kahane did the same thing when he was JDL Chairman.