New JFK documents reveal assassin’s CIA monitor was Jewish spy Reuben Efron

[Matthew Koch]

https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-jfk-documents-reveal-assassins-cia-monitor-was-jewish-spy-reuben-efron/

New JFK documents reveal assassin’s CIA monitor was Jewish spy Reuben Efron

Jewish immigrant from Lithuania, who later lived in Jerusalem, screened the mail of US president’s killer before the assassination, newly released files show

By RON KAMPEASToday, 3:07 am

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In this November 23, 1963, file photo, surrounded by detectives, Lee Harvey Oswald talks to the media as he is led down a corridor of the Dallas police station for another round of questioning in connection with the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy. (AP)

JTA — For decades, armchair analysts scrutinizing the mysteries of former US president John F. Kennedy’s assassination have fixated on who, exactly, opened his future assassin’s mail while he was under CIA surveillance ahead of the shooting.

As the conspiracy theory went, that person would have understood Lee Harvey Oswald’s relationship with the Soviet Union and thus could unlock new information about a possible Communist plot against Kennedy — or a US government scheme to obscure his true killer.

Last month, a new document dump in the ongoing declassification of Kennedy documents revealed the identity of the CIA screener: Reuben Efron, a lieutenant colonel in the US Army and a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania.

The New York Times was the first to report Efron’s identity. “And that means — what, exactly?” the newspaper asked in its report. “A tantalizing clue to unraveling a complicated conspiracy that the government has sought to cover up for decades? Additional proof that the CIA knew more about Oswald than initially acknowledged? Or a minor detail withheld all this time because of bureaucratic imperatives irrelevant to the question of whether Oswald was the lone gunman on the fateful day?”

A deep dive into Efron’s Jewish identity does not answer those questions. But it does reveal that Efron not only worked as a spy but had a deep knowledge of the spies in Jewish tradition.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has confirmed that Efron spent time living in Israel before dying on November 22, 1993 — 30 years to the day after Kennedy’s assassination. While there, he contributed five articles in the 1970s to the Jewish Bible Quarterly, a World Zionist Organization-affiliated publication based in Jerusalem, that channeled his expertise in espionage.

“Rahab and her premises were under surveillance of a counterintelligence team of the king of Jericho who soon established that the two men visiting Rahab were actually Israelite spies,” he wrote in one of the essays, referring to a Jericho courtesan who, according to the Book of Joshua, assisted the Israelites in preparing to rout the Canaanites. Efron called Rahab “a prototype of a Mata Hari,” the World War I-era exotic dancer-turned-spy.

In one of the essays, Efron directly addressed the problem of spies incorrectly assessing their surveillance target — a critique that has been leveled about his read of Oswald. About the 10 spies who, in the Book of Numbers, returned to the Israelites unsettled by their venture into Canaan, he writes, “The militarily inexperienced scouts apparently had been unduly impressed with the prowess of the enemy and, as is frequent among Easterners, exaggerated his capabilities.”

The essays, three of which appeared in a series called “Military Intelligence in the Bible,” do little to illuminate either the Kennedy assassination or the inner life of the man who read Oswald’s mail. But they do shed light on how he spent his retirement.

Efron was born Ruvelis Effronas in Simnas, Lithuania, on April 12, 1911, and attended a Jewish high school there (a “Hebrew gymnasium,” in his words), followed by Vytautas Magnus University in what is now Kaunas. He practiced law for five years in that city — a thriving hub of Lithuanian Jewish life that would become the site of the country’s largest ghetto under the Nazis — before emigrating, as his brother had done previously.

Efron immigrated to the United States in December 1939, arriving in Miami via Cuba. US immigration documents list his profession as a salesman. According to a family history compiled by a relative, the following fall he enrolled at the Atlanta Law School, a night school that closed in the 1990s. He worked at a clothing store in downtown Atlanta until graduating in 1943.

He spoke Russian, Lithuanian, Hebrew, Yiddish and German and enlisted in the Air Force during World War II as an interpreter, according to a death notice published in the Miami Herald. After the war, the death notice said, he played a role in peace negotiations and in talks related to the resettlement of war refugees — among them, perhaps, members of his own family, but not his mother, who according to the published genealogy was murdered in the Holocaust.

For decades, Efron worked for the US government, playing roles that are only now coming to light as secret government documents are made available to the public. His family history says only: “Reuben worked for the Pentagon.”

In addition to his now-revealed role reading Oswald’s mail, Efron pops up in another declassified document dealing with an area of amateur sleuthing that has garnered a following as intense, if not more so, than the Kennedy assassination.

In October 1955, Efron was traveling by train in the Soviet Union with US Senator Richard Russell, a Georgia Democrat, and a senior US army official. The three men reported seeing two “circular and unconventional aircraft resembling flying discs or flying saucers… taking off almost vertically one minute apart.”

“After sighting, Soviet train men became excited and lowered curtains and refused permission to look out windows,” said the 1955 report, declassified in 2004. “US observers firmly believe these unconventional aircraft are flying saucer or disc aircraft.”

In retirement, Efron apparently enjoyed the freedom to opine. Living in Washington, DC, in 1971, he wrote to The New York Times urging the Nixon administration to reject proposals of a joint US-Soviet force to police Egypt-Israel peace, saying it would ”communize the whole area.”

It’s not clear if he ever officially immigrated to Israel using its Law of Return, which grants automatic citizenship to Jews who move to the country. But the obituary in the Miami Herald said that Efron “commuted between Israel and the United States for many years, during which he studied Israeli law and was admitted to the Israeli bar.” The obituary said Efron was inspired by his mother’s work in Lithuania with Jews who were immigrating to Mandatory Palestine.  (rest of the article is in the link) 

[Allen Lowe]

oh - this is one of the most viciously ANTI-SEMITIC thing I have read here. It is disgusting - the use of the terms "Jewish Spy" is a classic anti-Semitic trope - use the words, and then deny any connection - "Oh no" Matthew Koch will say, "It's not because he is Jewish but because he IS Jewish it must be connected to the Jews and Israel."

HOW LONG are the moderators going to allow this filth? Matthew Koch ought to be banned, the topic ought to be banned. THEJEWS xxxxING GET BLAMED FOR EVERYTHING. This is Marjorie Taylor Green territory.

MODERATORS? WHat the hell are you allowing here? A Jew opening Oswald's mail? I heard his mailmen was a Melungeon, so they must be plotters. The headline should be:

"NEW THREAD PROVES GERMAN MATTHEW KOCH HATES THE JEWS AND BLAMES THEM FOR EVERYTHING."

Shame on you all.

 

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by Allen Lowe

[Robert Montenegro]

1 hour ago, Allen Lowe said:

oh - this is one of the most viciously ANTI-SEMITIC thing I have read here. It is disgusting - the use of the terms "Jewish Spy" is a classic anti-Semitic trope - use the words, and then deny any connection - "Oh no" Matthew Koch will say, "It's not because he is Jewish but because he IS Jewish it must be connected to the Jews and Israel."

HOW LONG are the moderators going to allow this filth? Matthew Koch ought to be banned, the topic ought to be banned. THEJEWS xxxxING GET BLAMED FOR EVERYTHING. This is Marjorie Taylor Green territory.

MODERATORS? WHat the hell are you allowing here? A Jew opening Oswald's mail? I heard his mailmen was a Melungeon, so they must be plotters. The headline should be:

"NEW THREAD PROVES GERMAN MATTHEW KOCH HATES THE JEWS AND BLAMES THEM FOR EVERYTHING."

Shame on you all.

 

 

 

I have been saying that Matthew Koch ought to be banned permanently for his quasi-fascist anti-Jewish rants for several weeks now, and no dice from the administrators.

 

Check out Koch's anti-Jewish nonsense at this thread:

 

 

What the Hell is going on here?

 

Is this where the research community is heading—Michael Collins Piper flavored "Zionist Occupation Government," "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"-esque, Nazi-inspired Judeo–Bolshevism rants?!

 

 

[Sandy Larsen]

Relax Allen. The article was written by a Jewish guy, about a Jewish guy, for a Jewish audience.

 

[Sandy Larsen]

This is important stuff. The subject of the article, Reuben Efron, is the guy who recently was discovered to have been assigned by the CIA to read Oswald's mail. Remember? Jefferson Morley reported on this a couple weeks ago. He said it was a very important find. This article gives a lot of details about Efron.

 

[Robert Montenegro]

6 minutes ago, Sandy Larsen said:

This is important stuff. The subject of the article, Reuben Efron, is the guy who recently was discovered to have been assigned by the CIA to read Oswald's mail. Remember? Jefferson Morley reported on this a couple weeks ago. He said it was a very important find.

 

 

Jefferson Morley said it was an important find, yes, Mr. Larsen.

 

Jefferson Morley didn't make the fact that CIA agent Reuben Efron was an adherent to the Jewish faith a central matter of concern or intrigue.

 

So, one ask to ask the logical question, Mr. Larsen—why does Mr. Koch have to do this every time he locates a practicing Jew in the historical narrative surrounding the murder of President Kennedy?

 

Of course, I will present a parallel didactic, Mr. Larsen—Mr. Koch has deliberately gone out of his way to defend the legacy of Nazi war-criminals, like Reinhard Gehlen, for some reason.

 

Still not sinking in, is it Mr. Larsen?

 

Once again, it is your reputation and ultimately the legitimacy of the Education Forum, that is on the line here.

 

Coy semantics like "...Relax Allen. The article was written by a Jewish guy, about a Jewish guy, for a Jewish audience..." just doesn't pass muster, and frankly, stinks to high Heaven—like a smoke-stack at Auschwitz.

 

Once again, I would stress that one's personal faith is of little to no circumstantial issue to Mr. Koch, unless that person is a practicing member of the Jewish faith.  

 

Why is that, do you speculate, Mr. Larsen?

 

 

[Sandy Larsen]

4 hours ago, Robert Montenegro said:

Jefferson Morley said it was an important find, yes, Mr. Larsen.

 

Jefferson Morley didn't make the fact that CIA agent Reuben Efron was an adherent to the Jewish faith a central matter of concern or intrigue.

 

So, one ask to ask the logical question, Mr. Larsen—why does Mr. Koch have to do this every time he locates a practicing Jew in the historical narrative surrounding the murder of President Kennedy?

 

Of course, I will present a parallel didactic, Mr. Larsen—Mr. Koch has deliberately gone out of his way to defend the legacy of Nazi war-criminals, like Reinhard Gehlen, for some reason.

 

Still not sinking in, is it Mr. Larsen?

 

Once again, it is your reputation and ultimately the legitimacy of the Education Forum, that is on the line here.

 

Coy semantics like "...Relax Allen. The article was written by a Jewish guy, about a Jewish guy, for a Jewish audience..." just doesn't pass muster, and frankly, stinks to high Heaven—like a smoke-stack at Auschwitz.

 

Once again, I would stress that one's personal faith is of little to no circumstantial issue to Mr. Koch, unless that person is a practicing member of the Jewish faith.  

 

Why is that, do you speculate, Mr. Larsen?

 

If you wish to make anti-Semetic charges against Matthew Koch, then do so for where he says something anti-Semetic or posts something anti-Semetic. But what we have here is not anti-Semetic. The article remains.

 

[Leslie Sharp]

Kennedy, the Catholic Papist held similar overtones in 1963 as Efron The Jew, and to pretend otherwise shows a lack of intellectual honesty.
 

[Benjamin Cole]

I do not think we should impugn the motives of participants in the EF-JFKA, without pretty substantial evidence.

For example, I have posted on the RFK Jr. campaign, foremost as he is the only candidate that will open up the JFK Records.

And yet there is one EF-JFKA participant who has suggested I am really a white supremacist, and supporting RFK Jr. as he is a stalking horse for Trump, who himself is a favorite of modern-day Nazis somehow linked backed to the WWII Nazis and the JFKA. 

Koch has posted an article. Koch may even believe there was an Israeli-oriented JFKA. Most residents of Israel are Jewish.  Such stories have appeared in Israeli media. 

So it goes. 

I have posted many times that I suspect Cubanos of the JFKA. No one has said I am an anti-Hispanic. 

[W. Niederhut]

41 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Kennedy, the Catholic Papist held similar overtones in 1963 as Efron The Jew, and to pretend otherwise shows a lack of intellectual honesty.
 

I agree that the phraseology is inappropriate and anti-Semitic.

Was Efron spying on behalf of Israel or the U.S.?

If he was working for the Mossad, he should be referred to as an "Israeli spy."

If he was working for the CIA, he should be referred to as an "American spy."

As written, the lead post is like writing, "Presbyterian Minister's Son Created a Monster as CIA Director From 1953-61, or Sociopathic German-Scottish President Tried to Violently Overturn a U.S. Electon.

 

[Ron Bulman]

11 minutes ago, W. Niederhut said:

Presbyterian Minister's Son Created a Monster as CIA Director From 1953-61,

I'm stealing that one W.

[Sandy Larsen]

1 hour ago, W. Niederhut said:

I agree that the phraseology is inappropriate and anti-Semitic.

 

Please, William.

The author of the piece is Ron Kampeas, the bureau chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). He's Jewish and he writes pro-Jewish and pro-Israeli articles all the time. Do you seriously believe that what he wrote is anti-Semitic?

 

[Benjamin Cole]

27 minutes ago, Sandy Larsen said:

 

Please, William.

The author of the piece is Ron Kampeas, the bureau chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). He's Jewish and he writes pro-Jewish and pro-Israeli articles all the time. Do you seriously believe that what he wrote is anti-Semitic?

 

Some participants in his space have argued that there were Israelis dancing atop vans while viewing 9/11 WTC and thus Israelis had advance knowledge of the impending disaster and were on board somehow (I think this theory is bananas, btw). The Jewish landlord of WTC is brought into the picture. 

A lot of this sort of talk may have anti-Semitic undertones, but accusations of "racism" are easy to make, and befoul content. 

Personally, I do not suspect Israelis of having anything to do with 9/11, or the JFKA. 

Jack Ruby who was Jewish, was likely an arm of the US mob, a surprisingly polyglot organization. 

[W. Niederhut]

9 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Some participants in his space have argued that there were Israelis dancing atop vans while viewing 9/11 WTC and thus Israelis had advance knowledge of the impending disaster and were on board somehow (I think this theory is bananas, btw). 

 

It's not a theory, Ben.

It's a fact.

Do you know the difference between theories and facts?

Obviously, you haven't studied the FBI files on the subject that have been posted here on the forum.

Do some remedial homework.

[W. Niederhut]

11 hours ago, Sandy Larsen said:

 

Please, William.

The author of the piece is Ron Kampeas, the bureau chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). He's Jewish and he writes pro-Jewish and pro-Israeli articles all the time. Do you seriously believe that what he wrote is anti-Semitic?

 

Sandy,

     As written, the headline could be construed as anti-Semitic, IMO.  In our pluralistic society, it is generally considered inappropriate to specify a subject's religion or ethnicity in a headline story about something other than religion or ethnicity.

     As I mentioned, (above) would we consider it appropriate to write a headline like, "Presbyterian Spy Implicated in JFK Assassination Plot," or "Donald Trump's Grandfather Was a German Pimp?"

      And, BTW, some Jewish intellectuals have been accused by the ADL of Anti-Semitism, (e.g., Ron Unz and Alan Sobrosky) although, to my knowledge that sobriquet has not been applied to Kampeas.