The following are excerpts of an article appearing in the NY Post titled “Go Ahead, Make My High Holiday”:
It’s high noon for the high holidays.
Fearing jihadists will attack synagogues during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a group of rabbis has developed a program to turn your average shul-goer into a lean, mean fighting machine.
The group, which calls itself the International Security Coalition of Clergy, was founded by Rabbi Gary Moscowitz, who boasts a black belt in karate, teaches martial arts and was an NYPD cop for nine years.
He’s teaching others basic and advanced fighting moves — how to take down a terrorist by the neck, how to use a table as cover from gunfire and how to execute a nifty running somersault while drawing a gun — that he says can be used by Jews if they’re attacked by terrorists during prayer.
“Jews are not like Christians,” Moscowitz said. “If I turn my cheek, I’m coming around to make a kick.”
Moscowitz said he doesn’t think Muslims in general are a threat, but “extremist groups are.”
“We’re just worried about the safety of the houses of worship that are being threatened with rhetoric on regular basis and extremism,” the 52-year- old rabbi said.
Moscowitz said few people took him seriously until May, when the FBI busted homegrown Muslim terrorists for allegedly plotting to blow up synagogues in The Bronx.
Since then, he said, his phone has been ringing off the hook and he created a 100-hour course for synagogue self-defense.
Moscowitz said NYPD officers aren’t qualified to guard synagogues because they don’t know members of the congregation.
“A terrorist could put a yarmulke on, say, ‘Happy holidays,’ and blow the place up,” he said.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said the rabbi had been fired in the early 1990s from the force, but didn’t know details. Asked about Moscowitz’s criticism of the NYPD, Browne opted for a biblical-like statement.
“Blessed are the tight of lip,” he said, “for they shall resist speaking ill of the ill-informed.”
(Source: NY Post / YWN-112)
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5 Responses
Good for Rabbi Moscowitz. This is a worry that crosses every Jews mind, to one degree or another, when davening in shul.
Again, another article that reminds me of how Rabbi Kahane was ahead of his time and that he was right in how to respond to and view the arabs.
Where can I sign up…
I think this picture is a disgrace to a shul, how can thse people pose with guns in front of an Ahron Kodesh!!?? This rabbi’s answer also seems like he did something really bad and stupid.
Sadly, when I mentioned this story to people, most replied to the efeect “What do we need this for? Nothing’s happened.” People are so incredible naive. Jews haven’t learned anything from history. We have to wait for a tragedy to happen to do something! As Rabbi Kahane always said regarding Jews owning guns – “Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it!” The same goes for preparation to defend our shuls (and schools!) But alas, I waste my breath, since when you tell this to most people they think you are some kind of wacko. They WILL, in fact, have to have something happen in their own “backyard” (chas v’chalila) before they (maybe) do something.
My initial “emotional” reaction when I saw a similar article on Shabbos was: hey, this is great! We need to be able to defend ourselves from Muslim terrorists. In the spirit of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, we must never again go like sheep to the slaughter.
But that reaction wore off very quickly, especially when I examined the photo that accompanies the article. Rather, I became edgy and uncomfortable with the stench of machismo and vigilantism that this whole idea reeks of.
There are thousands of shuls in the U.S. Are we to put armed contingents in every one? Absurd. And who, indeed, would be attracted to join this Jewish vigilante movement? You betcha. The gun-nuts and Rambo-wannabees who would grab at any excuse to carry a weapon. Jewish rednecks make me just as nervous as Aryan Nation rednecks.
So, while on some visceral level this all seems very attractive, my gut tells me that it’s a really bad idea.