Finkelstein Addresses Stormy Meeting at California University

Norman Finkelstein, a Jewish scholar who is vehemently attacked for his criticisms of Israeli policies and the “Holocaust industry” addressed more than 200 students at a packed lecture hall at California State University in Fullerton on Monday evening, May 9. The student paper reported on the meeting, which generated heated discussion on campus.

Placard-carrying activists of the Jewish Defense League, a militant Zionist group, harassed and interrupted the speaker. Police kept order when violence seemed ready to break out. The most obnoxious of the JDL activists was Shelley Rubin. At one point she tried to discredit Finkelstein by angrily complaining that his book is available for sale through the “Holocaust denying” Institute for Historical Review.

As it happens, IHR staff members attended the event, and distributed IHR leaflets. The Holocaust Industry, Finkelstein’s headline-making book, is available for sale through the IHR-affiliated Noontide Press. 

In February 2005 Shelley Rubin and several dozen other JDL activists rallied against a demonstration organized by the IHR at the Canadian consulate in Los Angeles . Dozens of police stood between the two contending groups to prevent violence. (Shelley Rubin’s late husband, Irv Rubin, was for years the leader of the Jewish Defense League. He committed suicide in November 2002 while awaiting trial on charges of plotting to blow up a mosque, a Muslim center, and the office of a US Congressman. )

Irv Rubin and three other JDL activists carried out a devastating firebombing of the IHR offices on July 4, 1984, Their responsibility for the arson attack was established by the Torrance ( Calif. ) police department after a detailed investigation. However, no one was ever arrested for the crime, which caused $400,000 in damages.