Meir Kahane

Some readers of The Times (Letters, Nov. 5) have asked why they did not hear about any response to Rabbi Meir Kahane by Los Angeles Jewish leaders. Obviously, they have not been paying close attention to the news. The facts are:

The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith said that Kahane “shames his title ‘rabbi’ ” and he is “a revealed, discredited and despised false prophet in Israel.”

All the major Jewish agencies issued a statement prior to Kahane’s arrival here, declaring that “Kahane’s words and actions are alien to the precepts of Judaism. We reject them and what they stand for.”

Los Angeles television stations carried evening interviews with ADL Western States area director Harvey B. Schechter who denounced Kahane’s philosophy as “offensive, bigoted, and contrary to Jewish tradition.”

The Los Angeles Jewish community recognized its responsibility to condemn without delay and in no uncertain terms hatred from within its own midst. Perhaps this is why Kahane only drew some 300 people to hear him at the Century Plaza while Louis Farrakhan drew 16,000 to the Forum.

ROBERT M. SMITH

Los Angeles

Smith is assistant to the director of the Pacific Southwest Region of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.