Armed Summer Camp

Although it nestles snugly in the gentle foothills of New York's Catskill Mountains, Camp Jedel is no bucolic summer retreat. It is surrounded by a metal fence guarded 24 hours a day by campers; a 30-ft. watchtower is under construction. There is no baseball diamond or basketball court; the swimming pool is empty. The 37 campers, including several girls, range from the ages of 13 to 19; they wear green Army fatigues emblazoned with the blue-and-white sleeve patch of the Jewish Defense League.

So far, the league--founded in 1968 by Rabbi Meir Kahane--has taken on neo-Nazis, allegedly anti-Semitic blacks and the Soviet persecution of Jews. It is most notorious for its harassment of Soviet diplomats in the U.S. (TIME, May 24). Kahane is currently out on five-year probation after pleading guilty to charges of conspiring to manufacture explosives. The camp is part of the league's program--originated in the poorer Jewish neighborhoods of New York City --to teach Jewish youths the fundamentals of self-defense at a time when threats to life and property seem to be ominously mounting.

Lost Illusions. Lecturer David Solomon, a black who is a convert to Orthodox Judaism, told the campers: "Our problem as Jews is that we've always been the humanists, the internationalists. We are the ones with faith in the world, and we are always the last to lose our illusions. That is what happened in Germany." Sam Shoshan, a leading member of the J.D.L. executive board, told TIME Correspondent Leonard Levitt: "We want to encourage the belief that fascism is coming to America and that the Jew is not safe here. If there is just a slight fear in some Jews, we play upon it."

Such reasoning is reflected in the camp's somber, ascetic routines. Director Russ Kelner, 30, a bearded, hard-nosed Philadelphia high school teacher, is running the camp with militaristic verve. Reveille is sounded at 6 a.m. Karate training is conducted from 6:15 to 7:30. After breakfast, because the rifle range is only partially completed, half the group at a time holds target practice while the other half lifts weights.

Drill and KP. At 11:30 the students hear the first of two daily lectures on Jewish history and culture; two more hours of karate classes are given in the afternoon. There is also occasional instruction in rappelling on the rocky camp escarpments. "The arms training may be to protect Jewish shopkeepers," explains Robert Glass, 15. Says another trainee, Larry Amsel, 19: "Scaling rocks may be preparation for scaling buildings in case of an outbreak of urban guerrilla warfare."

At day's end the colors--a small American flag above a larger Israeli flag --are lowered. The rest of the time the campers practice close-order drill, pull KP and read some of the library's 200-odd books. Among the most popular are Treblinka, by Jean-Franc,ois Steiner, and While Six Million Died, by Arthur D. Morse, which accuses Franklin D. Roosevelt of slackness in coming to the aid of Hitler's victims. One book is required reading: The Palestine Underground, by Y. Borisov. For good behavior, campers can earn a weekly pass that allows them to go into the neighboring town of Woodbourne.

Several of the nearby borscht belt hotels have occasionally invited the youngsters over for a swim; sometimes they have even catered hot meals to the camp. But the meals are looked at askance, and only two swimming invitations have been accepted. As young Glass puts it: "I didn't come here to have a good time. I came here to learn to fight for Jews."

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