The worldwide rise in anti-Semitism has been astonishing. While it impacts us all, our college students bear an outsized burden.
A far cry from what our parents thought when they imagined they had reached a safe harbor coming to the “golden medina.” America was to be the ultimate refuge from the constant attacks on Jews in Europe. Last year’s rise in anti-Jewishness has shown that America may have lost its guarantee to welcome the “teeming masses, yearning to breathe free”. Didn’t we assume that we were part of the teeming masses also? But today, if you have a child on a US campus, are you not worried about their safety? We no longer feel secure.
There is a new reality and one can see it everywhere The cement pillars surrounding synagogues and Yeshivas across the US are a telltale sign of our insecurity. They stand in silent testimony of an embattled Jewish community. And we are not fooling anyone by disguising them as flower pots. Baseball caps have replaced kippas for outside wear. Licensed, gun-toting members patrol many synagogues, trying to guarantee our right to gather for prayer. Many other institutions have hired private security firms. More Jews than ever are flocking to buy guns and are learning to shoot. We are worried.
Our parents and grandparents never envisioned resorting to such ‘non-Jewish’ methods, but recent synagogue shootings dictate that we take charge of our security. God helps those who help themselves, we are told.
We know how we got here. Iran financed a campaign to undermine support for Israel on our campus and in our cities. The all too willing and mostly ignorant leftist students eagerly picked up the pro-Hamas cry. This soon led to anti-Jewish agitation and physical intimidation of the Jewish students.
I know just what they are feeling. I faced such anti-Semitism as a young kid myself. Growing up in Hungary and Vienna , a scant few years after my parents were liberated from Auschwitz, I faced blatant Jew-hatred beginning in elementary school. But after arriving in New York, I began to train in karate, earning a Black Belt. My experience and my parent’s stories urged me to learn to protect myself. After the stunning Israeli victory in the Six-Day War, my Black karate instructor observed that “those boys in Israel sure kicked some ass” he continued to note,” They sure are nothing like the Jewish boys here in the US.” He encouraged me to toughen up the “boys over here” by teaching them karate. Inspired by his encouragement, I began to teach my friends in yeshiva. Soon, as word got out, others came to my classes. Admittedly, I was an oddity: a graduate of a black hat yeshiva teaching karate to Jewish youngsters.
1968 ushered in a political climate that was ripe for feeding the hunger for Jew hatred. Demographic changes in once-traditional Jewish neighborhoods forced Jews out. Those who could moved away. The ones who were left behind were defenseless and easy prey for the anti-Semitic predators. Rabbi Kahane founded the Jewish Defense League to provide safety for these targeted Jews. He reached out to me and asked me to expand my efforts to teach Jews to defend themselves. Soon, I was teaching hundreds of Jews the art of self-defense. My students were quick learners and were never ‘victims.’
I learned a lesson that still rings true today. When we are under attack, we are responsible for our defense. I am advocating self-defense training for our boys and girls to increase their confidence and self-defense skills.
I consider it unacceptable that some young people are afraid to wear Kippas outside their homes or synagogues. Don’t you? Visiting Hillel Houses on campus now requires contemplation. Our generation created vast Jewish institutions to educate our children and instill in them pride in their Jewishness. Should we just stand by while ignorant riff-raff intimidates them?
Current events have reinforced the notion that we must stand up for our beliefs. Like democracy, at times, we must fight to maintain it. Our students were caught unprepared for the well-trained and financed Jew haters. They were also unprepared for the physical confrontations that so many encountered. We saw our students helplessly driven off campus after campus. University officials were slow to react or did not react at all. In some schools, they needed protective details to access the library. In short, our sons and daughters were left to fend for themselves. Many universities were emptied of Jewish students. Can you say ‘Judenrein’?
My mother was a twenty-year-old student, in 1930 as she dreamed of a medical career. But the anti-Jewish laws of Hungary, the ‘numerus clausus,’ dictated how many Jews could be enrolled in such programs. She didn’t make it. Shortly after she chose education, she was forced out of college altogether by a virulently anti-Jewish student group, The Turul Society. They would not tolerate any Jewish presence in Hungarian Universities. Our present history is a repetition of our past. What took place in US schools after October 7th reminded me of my mother’s experience.
I write this article to encourage Jewish institutions to include self-defense training in their curriculum. Help me to advocate for this. There is nothing militant or scary about my proposal. I find it inexcusable and irresponsible not to offer such training.
As many of us strap on guns to protect our shuls, should we not enable our students to defend themselves as well? They must be given the skills to face challenges with confidence. The crazies will return as schools reopen, and feckless school chancellors will continue to waffle. Should we leave our students in the lurch?
I don’t think karate training will solve all the problems on campus. Political and legal avenues must be intensified to spread a protective shield over them. However, along with such efforts, we need to ensure they develop the confidence and skills required to handle confrontations. It takes confidence to stand up for your beliefs. I learned early in my life that it takes confidence to be a proud Jew.
For 50 years, I led karate teams to the Maccabiah Games. As we flew to Israel, I recall observing athletes from other sports. Soccer, weightlifting, gymnastics, basketball, track and field, swimming—you name the sport—they were all there. One common denominator I saw on all their faces was confidence and an exuberant sense of self. Athletics and sports tend to build such attitudes. Karate training adds one more ingredient: the ability to protect yourself physically.
I have advocated for such training for many years. The urgency we are facing now makes my proposal timelier. We should harness our vast resources to provide such training for our youth. With the many Jewish centers nationwide, the ubiquitous Hillels on campus, and the many Yeshivas, we have the resources to add such training to the curriculum. Summer camps are an ideal setting to introduce self-defense training. There are thousands of competent instructors who can lead such classes.
Remember what Hillel taught us:
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” and “If not now, when?”
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