ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE - AND A GOOD JEWISH LAWYER

All you need is love — and a good Jewish lawyer

by Leon Wildes, New Jersey Jewish Standard

Dec. 8th 2010 marked the 30th anniversary of the death of John Lennon. The December 2010 edition of the Jewish Standard asked Leon Wildes, the immigration attorney for Lennon and Yoko Ono, to share his reminiscences and reflections about his clients and friends. Michael Wildes, the former mayor of Englewood who is in practice with his father, shared some memories of his own…

Many years ago, I called my father, who lived in Olyphant, Pa., and spoke to him in Yiddish. “It is always a pleasure to speak to you, Leon,” he said, “but why are we discussing your latest deportation case in Yiddish?”

I told him that the FBI was probably tapping my telephone calls as well as the calls of my famous clients, John Lennon and Yoko Ono; the government, for some unspoken reason, had concluded that the Lennons’ presence in the United States should be terminated immediately, and I had been informed by my clients that our telephones were tapped. I then tossed in a suspicious term [in English] like “First Amendment” or “illegal wire tap” to keep our conversation salty. I explained to my understanding father that at least some hardworking elderly Jewish gentleman like him would have to be hired to translate the conversations, which would appear to be clearly in a suspicious foreign tongue. Why shouldn’t an elderly Jew get the job?

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