In the wake of the attacks on Orthodox Jews in New York City and the Shooting in Jersey City, Jews are coming to their senses that they need to learn to defend themselves.
Unfortunately, the Jews of New York and New Jersey live in states where owing the tools of self-defense is not a right.
This is what they are reduced to doing?
From the New York Post:
Jews flock to axe-throwing self defense class after Jersey City shooting
While I understand the motivation, that’s just fucking stupid.
These Jews have an axe to grind after the Jersey City shooting — and they’ll learn how to do it at a synagogue self-defense class.
“Rabbi sensei” Gary Moskowitz, a former NYPD officer and martial arts expert, is hosting an axe-throwing “counter-terrorism” class in Williamsburg Monday, and says Hasidic Jews have been clamoring to sign up in the wake of the kosher market massacre that left four people — including a cop — dead.
I did a search for Rabbi Moskowitz. He seems to be ahead of the curve on Jewish self defense.
He was featured in a ten-year-old article in the Forward:
Praise the Lord, Pass the Ammunition: Rabbi’s Got a Gun
An article from 2013 in the Times of Israel:
Sensei to the Orthodox
A rabbi teaches martial arts to Jewish kids in New York, whom he calls a ‘weak target’
And from WLYN CBS New York in 2018:
Rabbi: ‘We Must’ Have Armed Security In Synagogues
He’s totally right and has been for years. The problem is that he’s allowed, with lots of limits, to have a carry permit in New York because he is/was NYPD.
For the average Jew in New York or New Jersey, they are forbidden to carry by city and state law, and the way it is executed.
“The situation in Jersey City changed everything. In a few lessons and with practice, this is the quickest way for Jewish people to have a chance to mitigate terror and murder. At least they’ll have a fighting chance,” Moskowitz, also the president of American Jewish Security Council, told The Post.
“Civilians need training. No one can help you but yourself — you need zero response time.”
This. 100% this. This is absolutely true. Not just for the Jews, but for everyone.
The seventh degree black belt says the Orthodox community feels under siege amid a spike in anti-Semitic hate crimes this year, and claims their best defense is to literally bury the hatchet.
No, it’s not.
In his two-hour class at Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom, the 62-year-old will also demo how to stop an attacker by hurling spears, mallets, bricks and weights — but not with a gun.
“I’m teaching people to throw axes — it’s a fatal strike with immediate stopping power. If you shoot someone, it could take a while. When you get struck with an axe, it’s game over,” he said, adding that it’s easier to train someone to throw a 2- to 5-pound axe than to use a gun.
No, it’s not. Not by a long shot.
Also, getting hit by a axe, unless it hits edge first and penetrates, or hits the bad guy in the skull, isn’t a “game over” instant kill. It’s not like it is in the movies.
You know what is more effective than a 2 lbs axe? A 230 grain JHP. Or 158 grains of 357 magnum if I’m feeling in a wheelgun mood.
“No one’s going to get a gun permit in NYC, so why teach it to someone in NYC when they can’t carry it in NYC?”
“We’re not looking to kill people, we’re looking to stop them,” he added.
And the truth comes out. Finally some fucking honesty. It’s not that a gun is less effective than an axe. It’s those fucking politicians in the Acela Corridor won’t let people have guns.
That’s the problem he is trying to get around.
Elliott Gordon, an Orthodox talent agent from Flatbush, is one of at least 10 people who’ve signed up for counter-terrorism course.
“The idea is we really have to be prepared with weapons at hand that anyone can get. If we can grab an axe, a brick, anything we’re allowed to have and know how to use it, to hit the guy on the head with a brick, problem over. A pistol isn’t the only weapon,” Gordon said.
“Anything we’re allowed to have.” That says it all right there.
But one Jewish security expert said the tactics didn’t cut it — arguing axes and spears are impractical and could potentially land you in legal trouble.
“Self defense training is critical in that it empowers individuals with skills necessary to react quickly to defend against dangerous situations. It’s important to train with what you will have on hand in the event of an attack, such as your arms, legs, hands, feet, elbows or even a fire extinguisher,” said Deena Seelenfreund, NJ Regional Manager of Community Security Service, a volunteer group that protects Jewish sites.
“If you are training with objects that can be considered illegal with the intent to harm and are not readily accessible, such as spears, axes, mallets etc., then you will be at a loss to defend …. The idea of someone carrying a mallet, spear or axe, is impractical.”
He is right. It is illegal to carry most objects if their intention is to use them as a weapon. Nobody is going to carry an axe around the streets of New York City with the excuse that they are about to go camping in a vacant lot and roast marshmallows over a burning tire.
This is why gun rights are so important.
As a Jew living in the unsophisticated Red state of Alabama, I can walk around all day and go to synagogue with a gun strapped to my hip. I don’t have to pretend to do the Kung-Fu hustle with some yard maintenance equipment from the Home Depot. If I am attacked, I can simply shoot the bad guy.
The lack of gun rights has NEVER helped the Jews. Not once, ever. Never.
The bad guys who want to hurt the Jews will ALWAYS find a way to get the guns they want to use to kill the Jews.
Case in point:
Ahmed A-Hady, 35, was arrested after authorities seized three assault rifles following a search of his residence and a Keyport pawn shop connected to his family, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
A-Hady, a convicted felon, was arrested after federal authorities said they found more than a dozen weapons in a gun safe inside Buy and Sell City, as well as in family apartments on the second floor. His younger brother said their father owns the Keyport pawn shop, but the family lives in several apartments above the store. Ahmed A-Hady owns a pawn shop in South Amboy, his brother said.
During searches of the pawn shop and A-Hady’s residence, detectives found a PK 380, a Ruger 9mm, a Smith and Wesson .44 caliber handgun and three AR-15-style assault rifles, authorities said. They also found more than 400 rounds of ammunition, including a large number of hollow-point bullets, authorities said.
Those gun laws worked really well to keep assault rifles out of the hands of two potential mass shooters and a felon.
No, in fact, the laws didn’t work to keep guns out of the hands of bad guys, all they did was disarm the Jews.
I’m glad that I am a Jew outside of the Blue bubble. I like to know that if the shit hits the fan I can grab something more effective than an axe to defend myself with.
IF they are serious about teaching unarmed self defense, they need to contact Idan Abolnik- a serious, combat experienced, hands-on Jewish combat self defense teacher, he is the real deal. And also a helluva great guy. But of course, if some scumbag walks up to a synagogue with a rifle or handgun and starts mag dumps, not a lot an be done since our northern state Jewish brothers have willingly voted over and over for people who hate them, disarm them, and don’t care if they die. I have NEVER understood this!!! If I were young and healthy I would happily go fight with the IDF on their own borders- yet here in the USA, Jews consistently vote for Jew-hating Democrat communist bastards who want them dead!!! But just as I pray for the peace of Jerusalem, so would I also be ready to defend the Jews here if the occasion arose.
I wonder where Rabbi Bendory is right now; he should speak up.
The NJ case requires every Jew in the area to apply for a carry permit right now. Mass permit applications. The result presumably will be blanket rejection, which they can and should then publish to the world as evidence of rabid antisemitism in the authorities. “They want us dead.”
Guns?
Bladed instruments?
Why not carry both?
I’ve actually been practicing axe throwing (along with spear, javelin, and knife) with the SCA for a few years now. I also regularly use a battle-axe in SCA combat. It’s a full-contact combative sport, it ain’t a larp. These things hurt and the throwing axes are live steel with razor sharp blades.
It’s fun and I wouldn’t feel disadvantaged if I had to use one in earnest in a combat situation against another opponent armed with a melee weapon.
I am never going to make it my primary, secondary, tertiary, or whatever the word is for nine-thousandth place pick for a self-defense tool.
I second pkoning’s advice.
Everyone eligible should immediately apply for a concealed carry permit. Men, Women, old, young, everyone. In the interim, you should set up instate or out of state range days for those willing to learn. Give them training and familiarization on firearms so they are ready if the improbable happens and they get a permit.
Can the synagogues in NYC get a premise permit or something to arm the worshippers?
If I see a thousand Jews (<1%) in NYC or New Jersey take actual action, I will be surprised and shocked. Too many will do nothing but gripe, even as they are one day loaded into the boxcars. And those whiners will be the ones loudly chastising anyone that wants to take effective actions today. They will also be the ones that squeal to the authorities if anyone carries without a permit.
To paraphrase Samuel Adams: May their chains set lightly upon them, and may posterity forget that they ever were our countrymen.
Hahahahaha, “we dont want to kill anyone, just stop them”. Think Ill move there and open a self defense shop trainin with those big foam bats and nerf balls…. how stupid is that? Self defense with your feet- MOVE. more and more I have been saying every “red” American should move out of the northeast. We are getting over run by liberals.
I feel they are neglecting the obvious choice of offering Jew Jitsu classes for unarmed self defense.
I can just see the headline of “local synagogue stockpiles medieval weapons what are they up to, we’ll wildly speculate at 10” its the worst kind of confidence inspired by security theater
It is sickening to actually hear “what we’re permitted” in terms of self defense. I understand that shooting to stop the threat is the PC version of shoot em till they whistle in a stiff wind but its never been explained to my satisfaction how a security guard is any more worthy of being armed than someone who chooses to take responsibility for their own destiny.
The military term is stand-off weapon. You want to take them out from a distance and with an axe you have the equivalent of one shot. If that axe misses, or if there’s two or more of them, you’re unarmed, the bad guy has your axe and knows where you threw from.
Everything that can be said negatively about a using a gun in the worst moment of your life goes double for the axe.
A 230 grain hollow point is far superior to an axe, and I’d certainly go with it, but I’d feel outgunned. Confronted by a mass shooter who doesn’t care if they die, 12 ga. sounds better.
Trust me, if I were a Rabbi, I’d have an 14″ 870 loaded with 00 sitting on the Bimah (the alter in a Synagogue) – the great thing about Alabama is that its an NFA friendly state.
Since I can’t carry a scattergun into Shul, a 1911 will have to do.
This whole thing reminds me of an encounter with Campus police back in the 80’s. MSU was a “weapons free zone”. WEAPONS, not just guns, but all weapons. When the parking garage rapist was raping 3 women a week in the parking garages, our technical assistance, 5’3″ 130# soaking wet, started carrying a baseball bat to and from her car.
For the first time in the 15 years she had been working in that office, she saw a cop in the parking garage. He told her that he was going to arrest her for the “weapon” because she obviously wasn’t going to a baseball game.
For me, I called in to report that somebody had broken into my van and stolen some stuff. Campus cop comes off campus to take the report. I show him the VW van. He sees the K-Bar strapped to the drivers door. Tells me that if I was on campus he would arrest me for “carrying a concealed weapon” because even though it was in “plain sight” he would not be able to see it from the passenger window.
He was more concerned about that damn knife than he was about the fact that I was the victim of a crime.
When the laws require you to be disarmed, people find ways around them. The cops respond by making those methods and ways illegal as well.
Same reason the instructor says they don’t want to “kill” anybody, they just want to “stop” them. If they were to admit that death was a potential outcome for the criminal, it would suddenly become illegal to do that training.
The local schools are very safe. The odds of an active shooting at our local school is so low as to be statistically zero (same is true for almost all other American schools). But many of the teachers have “weapons” in their class room. One teacher has two baseball bats, one by the door and the other by her desk.
Some have things to throw and things to spray. But they are making weapons from things that aren’t normally considered weapons because they aren’t allowed to have the best weapon for their needs.
Here is a video showing how to turn some duct tape and newspaper into a deadly weapon: https://youtu.be/ycKivNkeXAk?t=285