Rabbi Shlomo Noginski’s black belt in judo helped him to fend off his anti-Semitic attacker, who he said tried to stab him close to 100 times, saying that it’s a miracle he was only stabbed eight times.

Ironically, Rabbi Noginski’s judo background is the result of a prior anti-Semitic attack in Russia, where he grew up. He told the Boston Herald that he was beaten up by hooligans when he was 10.

In the wake of the attack, his mother enrolled him in a martial arts class and he eventually earned a black belt in judo.

When the assailant, Khaled Awad, approached him, Rabbi Noginski bravely ran away from the Chabad center where there were many children attending a day camp, in order to protect the children. He told Fox News that the pursuit lasted about five to seven minutes before he was stabbed in a nearby park.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)