This week’s highlight is a bit topical. With all of the coverage of the current gun control legislation I thought I would share an item from the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) which is an organization based in Hartford, Wisconsin founded by former firearms dealer Aaron S. Zelman in 1986. [1] According to the JPFO website the “JPFO initially aimed at educating the Jewish community about the historical evils that Jews have suffered when they have been disarmed” and then later expanded to prove that “’gun control’ had played a fundamental role in all the major genocides of the 20th Century … not just the Holocaust.”[2]  The JPFO is noted for its extreme view of gun control legislation and has been criticized by Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League who wrote “anti-Semitism has a long and painful history, and the linkage to gun control is a tactic by Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership to manipulate the fear of anti-Semitism toward their own end.”[3]

The group has released a variety of publications including pamphlets, documentaries and comic books. It is difficult to determine how many members and/or subscribers the group has. There are only 6 items from the JPFO in the Hall Hoag collection.

Jews For the Preservation of Firearm Ownership Poster (1991)