Sign-ups at New York’s Krav Maga schools have surged in recent months as the city’s Jewish men and women look to be able to defend themselves from potential antisemitic attacks.
“October 7th sent an electric current through the Jewish community,” Master Rhon Mizrachi, founder and head instructor of the Krav Maga Federation in the Flatiron District, told The Post.
On October 8th, Mizrachi saw an immediate increase in Jewish people enrolling to train at his school.
“Add the pro-Hamas and openly antisemitic environment and there was another wave of Jews joining,” he said. “Training in Krav Maga had not been their priority, but October 7th opened their eyes.”
Krav Maga, which translates to “contact combat” in Hebrew, is a self defense system developed in the late 1940s for the Israel Defense Forces, incorporating techniques from Aikido, boxing, judo, karate and wrestling.
Avi Abraham, founder and chief instructor of Active Krav Maga in Fresh Meadows, Queens, also saw a “significant increase” in Jews coming to train. “My classes for teenagers have especially increased since October 7 — by as much as 40% — with most of those new students being Jewish,” Abraham told The Post.
“Our studio has become a place for like-minded individuals seeking camaraderie and confidence,” he added, noting that he is also being hired by synagogues to train worshippers in the event of a mass shooting.
Matan Gavish, the founder of FIT HIT and Krav Maga Academy in Chelsea, has observed an uptick in Jewish women signing up.
“Many of these women have shifted from traditional fitness activities, such as SoulCycle and Pilates … because our programs not only keep them in shape but also equip them with vital self-defense skills,” he told The Post. “[They’re] tapping into a protective, lioness-like mindset where it’s clear they might have to defend themselves or their family in light of this new reality.”
Arielle Kaden, 30, is among the many women who started taking classes at Krav Maga Experts on the Upper West Side after October 7.
She’s been training for nine months at the studio, which was founded by Tsahi Shemesh, a former IDF paratrooper, and thinks it’s paid off.
“Not only do I feel safer as a Jew, but I feel safer as a woman and a person,” said Kaden, a writer based in New York currently working on a book about Jewish continuity and its history.
“People who take our classes seriously completely change their mindset from being a victim to being an empowered person who can stand up for themselves and speak up,” said Shemesh, who himself was subjected to an antisemitic attack while with his two children on the Upper West Side last November.
Dmitriy Salita, an Orthodox Jew and former boxer-turned-promoter, is also no stranger to rampant antisemitism and the value of self-defense.
In 1991, he was 9-years-old when he and his family fled persecution in Odessa, Ukraine, just before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
They settled in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Salita had no money, spoke no English and was taunted endlessly for his ragged clothes and thick accent. He took up boxing at the famed Starrett City Boxing Club run by renowned trainer Jimmy O’Pharrow.
He went on to forge a glittering amateur career, winning the 2000 U.S. National Under-19 Championship, as well as the prestigious New York Golden Gloves in 2001, where he also earned the Sugar Ray Robinson Award as the tournament’s stand-out boxer.
These days, he’s a promoter working with a star-studded line-up of fighters, including two-time Olympic gold medalist and multi-division champion Claressa Shields, considered by some to be the greatest female boxer of all time.
But he encourages all people, especially Jews, to be proud of who they are and to learn to fight and protect themselves.
“Who you are should never stand in the way of what you could become,” Salita, who wears a yarmulke and attends shul daily, told The Post. “I openly identify myself as a Jew. I choose to wear a kippah and boxing and martial arts are a great way to take care of yourself and your family.”
Jonathan Harounoff is the author of the forthcoming book “Unveiled: Inside Iran’s #WomenLifeFreedom Revolt.”
