During the 1970s, Kahane was arrested and charged with a number of violent offenses related to his JDL activities in the US, including bombing, kidnapping, and assassination plots, but never received more than a slap on the wrist. In 1975, he was
sentenced to one year in prison for violating parole on a 1971 conviction for conspiring to manufacture explosives, after he was caught encouraging JDL members to kidnap or kill Soviet diplomats, bomb the Iraqi embassy in Washington, and plotting to smuggle weapons to Israel. However, a judge allowed Kahane to spend most of his sentence living with few restrictions at a Manhattan hotel because he couldn’t get kosher meals in prison. As The New York Times
reported, Kahane spent much of his time lecturing to followers in synagogues around the city, socializing at the homes of friends, and violating his curfew.