?In ancient times
– whether it was Abraham defeating the five kings, the conquest of Jericho led
by Joshua, or the victories of King David, and later the Maccabees – Jews were
warriors. At the conclusion of the Purim story, we learn that Jews took up arms
to defend themselves and defeat their enemies. Unfortunately, after many
centuries of exile, most often in hostile environments, Jews learned to keep
their heads down and maintain a low profile.
Following numerous exiles, and pogroms,
the Jew was seen as an easy target to be preyed upon, bullied, and beaten. In
the Diaspora, he was constantly reminded that he was an outsider and a second-class
citizen. The Church encouraged antisemitism, and various governments found the
Jews to be the perfect scapegoats for their failures. Finally, after a long
history of persecutions, Hitler (yimach
shemo v’zichro) and his willing cohorts unleashed the greatest pogrom of
all time – the Holocaust.
It is incomprehensible that, just a
few short years after millions of Jews were marched into gas chambers, Israel
was born. Six-hundred thousand under-trained and poorly armed Jews, with no
assistance whatsoever from a world awaiting their annihilation, faced off
against 50 million Arabs with their well-equipped armies and air forces.
Through Divine intervention, the Jews survived and established a state! The
Jewish warrior had been reborn.
Against all odds – in 1948, 1967,
and 1973 – Israeli soldiers defeated their implacable enemies, sadly at
considerable cost. In 1976, Israel redeemed captives, not by paying ransom, as
had been the usual method for 2000 years. Instead, Israeli airborne commandos
raided an airfield thousands of miles from Tel Aviv, destroying 25% of the
Ugandan air force, and rescuing 102 of Idi Amin’s hijacked captives imprisoned
at Entebbe airport. Enemies of the Jewish people took notice.
* * *
Having been involved in kiruv (outreach) most of my life, I have
no doubt that the modern kiruv
movements, as well as the baal teshuva yeshivas,
and seminaries that were founded in the late-1960s were a direct result of the
new perception of Jews after 1948 and 1967. Simply put: Jewish pride had been
restored because of tough Jews. Even our detractors had grudging respect for
the modern Jewish warriors.
I just finished reading a book
entitled Gangsters Versus Nazis. It’s
the true story of the growing Nazi danger in America during the late 1930s and
how Jewish gangsters, at the behest of New York Judge Nathan Perlman, were
recruited to deal (quite successfully) with the serious Nazi threat to American
Jews and to the United States. The book describes a meeting arranged by Judge
Perlman in Meyer Lansky’s New York apartment. The judge says to Meyer, “Do you
know some fellows who might want to punch a Nazi?” Meir replies, “Why yes, Judge,
I do and, respectfully, you understand that we can do better than just a punch.”
Perlman declined Lansky’s offer to abruptly “shorten” the lives of the American
Nazis but reached a compromise which would “teach them lessons that they would
not soon forget.” Lansky and his colleagues were good at teaching lessons.
During the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s,
America had a number of seriously tough Jews, many of whom were not exactly law-abiding
citizens. Among them was a Yid named Meyer Lansky. Not only did Lansky and his
partners take care of discouraging Nazis; they were also instrumental in
assisting the United States during the war by ferreting out Nazi spies and assisting,
in a major way, with the Allied invasion of Sicily in July of 1943. After the
war, Lansky and his Jewish associates were involved in relocating Jewish
refugees from the Soviet-controlled DP camps to camps in the American sectors.
Tens of thousands of cartons of cigarettes (the postwar European currency) were
used to bribe guards to allow the movement of these displaced Jews.
In 1947 and 1948, Lansky and his
Italian colleagues, who controlled the docks of New York and New Jersey, moved
thousands of tons of contraband munitions and explosives to the nascent State
of Israel in defiance of the U.S. State Department and the FBI. Lansky
personally contributed and raised huge sums to help the new state acquire boats
and planes.
While I feel very conflicted when
discussing Jewish gangsters, they were, from my perspective, somehow part of an
inexplicable Divine plan, one that is well beyond my understanding. I do know
that for many Jews like my late dad, Meyer Lansky was both an enigma and almost
a hero because he fearlessly stood up to antisemites and unceremoniously handed
out concussions (or worse) to our enemies. Most American Jews of my dad’s
generation, while not approving of Jewish gangsters, were okay with knowing
that there were tough Jews around to remind antisemites to think carefully
before messing with Jews.
With the establishment of Israel,
the self-image and self-esteem of Jews around the world was enhanced. We were
proud of “our” Jewish army and pleased that the world knew that there were
finally (law-abiding) Jews capable of defending their brothers and sisters.
* * *
I recall coordinating an NCSY
Shabbaton in Brooklyn in 1970. The neighborhood was a bit dicey, so we
organized walking groups for Shabbos. One of our madrichim (leaders) was a rav from Yeshiva Shaalavim and a ranking
officer in an Israeli commando unit. His name was Tzvi Kaspi. Eventually he
became one of the rebbes at his hesder
yeshiva, where young men learn and also do military service. In the 1967 war,
Tzvi and his platoon, under the cover of darkness, entered Syria to carry out
an incredible mission that helped Israel take control of the Golan Heights.
On Friday night, Tzvi offered to
walk a number of Shabbaton participants to their hosts’ homes, after which he
had to walk 20 minutes to his host’s home. It was well after midnight when he
was crossing Prospect Parkway. A car slowed down and pulled up alongside the
bearded, frum-looking Jew. After
shouting antisemitic slurs, four menacing thugs exited the vehicle, two were
holding clubs, one brandished a knife. What happened next is the stuff of
legends.
After quickly dispatching all four
of his attackers, Kaspi stood in the street waiting for a patrol car to drive
by. Eventually one appeared, and Kaspi flagged it down. The police saw that the
rabbi had blood on his coat, and they asked if he had been mugged and if he
needed an ambulance. He said, “I’m fine; the blood belongs to those guys” as he
pointed to his four would-be attackers who were lying in the gutter and on the
curb reeling in pain.
The cops were speechless. They said,
“You did this?!” And Kaspi replied, “I had no choice; they attacked me.” The
cops, in disbelief, called an ambulance, but it wasn’t for Kaspi. His attackers
sustained broken arms and ribs, and serious concussions. The police
congratulated Kaspi and thanked him. All four attackers had criminal records.
(As we approach Purim, we pause for
an important note: If such a thing happened today, Kaspi would be arrested and
charged with aggravated assault. The criminals would sue him for loss of income
due to grievous injuries sustained, which prevented them from returning to work
(as muggers) for months. The mayor of New York would visit the thugs in the
hospital, apologize, and invite them to city hall for lunch. An Antifa
representative would be on the scene to organize a riot to honor the criminals.
The Lafayette memorial statue in Prospect Park would be torn down and replaced
with a statue of the four victims of “Israeli terror.” Actually, these days,
that might not be a Purim shpiel!!)
I’ve often wondered what the four
thugs told their cell mates when they were asked how they sustained their
injuries. I doubt that they said, “Well, a rabbi beat us up!” I have also
wondered what the cops must have thought, since almost all of their
interactions with frum Jews and
rabbis were with dealing with them as victims, not victors.
* *
*
In the ’60s, Rabbi Meir Kahane was
the rav of a shul in Queens. He was a talmid
chacham who had received semicha
from the Gaon HaRav Avraham Kalmanowitz, Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir in Brooklyn.
He was also a lawyer, having graduated from NYU. While serving as the rav of
the Howard Beach Jewish Center, he became alarmed because elderly members of
the Jewish community were being attacked and mugged. The police seemed
unconcerned. Kahane organized self-defense classes to train able-bodied older
teens and young adults to patrol Jewish neighborhoods and subways in Queens and
Brooklyn. Within less than a year, attacks on Jews were down by almost 50% as
injuries to thugs escalated. In 1968, Meir Kahane founded the JDL (Jewish
Defense League). He was done with Jews being victims. JDL’s slogan was “Never
Again,” and its logo was a Mogen Dovid with a fist in the center. In addition
to protecting Jews in New York and other large Jewish communities, JDL was at
the forefront of the struggle for freedom for Soviet Jewry. Kahane was arrested
on numerous occasions for his militant activities defending Jewish interests.
Kahane believed that every Jew must
not only feel a responsibility for
his brethren, but actually accept responsibility. Kahane insisted that Jews
should be proud and unapologetic about their traditions, faith, culture, land,
and history. He believed that Jews needed to be strong and capable of self-defense
and, if threatened by a rodef (an
aggressor), do whatever was required to eliminate the threat. One of the JDL’s
slogans was “Peace through Superior Firepower.” Of course, it’s a true and
proven axiom. Were it not for G-d’s blessings and superior firepower, Israel
would not exist.
Kahane spelled out his philosophy in
his books, They Must Go: Uncomfortable
Questions for Comfortable Jews and Never
Again. In 1969, after Kahane had successfully established the JDL and its
national reputation for going head-to-head with thugs, he and his family made aliyah. Throughout the ’70s, he
continued to be the spiritual leader of JDL and commuted between Israel and the
U.S. By 1980, he had become active in Israeli politics. Without Kahane’s direct
leadership, the JDL slowly faded by the mid-1980s.
Tragically, Kahane was assassinated
by an Egyptian terrorist in New York City in November of 1990. He was only 58.
Among Kahane’s staunch supporters were Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Irving
Bunim, Shlomo Carlebach, Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, Yosef Mendelevitch, Rav Aaron
Rakeffet-Rothkoff, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Dr. Moses Dovid Tendler, and
HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Hutner, together with many other notables.
* * *
I only realized how much impact
Rabbi Kahane had in reshaping the image of the Jew among non-Jews when my
family moved to Southern California. I became the principal of the Hebrew
Academy of Orange County, California, in 1977, when the school was in Long
Beach. In 1978, almost miraculously, we were able to secure a magnificent
(almost new) 12-acre campus that straddled the border of Huntington Beach and
Westminster. Unfortunately, the campus was not in a Jewish area, and at that
time, there were many non-Jews who resented a Jewish institution invading their
neighborhood. (For the record, Orange County now has a significant Jewish
population.) During the school’s first few years in our new facility, we had to
repeatedly deal with antisemitic graffiti and vandalism. The police would come,
take a report, and offer apologies, but the problem continued. During that time,
we had meetings with the mayors of Huntington Beach and Westminster, as well as
various council members, but the vandalism continued.
One year, as April approached, I was
reminded that April 20th was Adolph Hitler’s birthday, a Nazi day of
celebration. I was sure that our school would once again be targeted, just as
we had been earlier that school year on November 9th, Kristallnacht.
Therefore, the night of April 19th would require extra vigilance
since whatever might happen would occur in the wee hours of the morning of the
20th.
After Purim, I pondered what could
be done to protect our school. Then I finally had an idea. I contacted the
mayor’s office in Westminster. Mayor Elden Gillespie was a nice guy who had
often expressed sympathy and apologies for our problem. His secretary connected
me to him immediately. I explained my concerns about April 20, but I also said,
“Mr. Mayor, don’t worry, you don’t need to do anything. I’m contacting the
Jewish Defense League, and they’ll be coming down – in force – to protect us,
so we’ll be fine.”
Elden reacted immediately: “No, no,
you mustn’t do that. We can’t have a bloodbath in our city. Call them off.” I
knew that Eldon was thinking about the summer of 1977, when Nazis came to
Skokie, Illinois, to intimidate the Jewish community, many of whom were Holocaust
survivors. The JDL openly declared that there would be Nazi blood in the
streets. Indeed, on July 4, 1977, helmeted members of the JDL descended on
Skokie to confront the Nazis, who wisely chose not to engage them. The city
also revoked the Nazis’ rally permit, fearing the JDL’s threats.
I said, “Mr. Mayor, we must protect
ourselves. You’ve tried your best – now it’s our turn.”
Elden said “I’m coming over to your
school now. DO NOT call in the JDL!” An hour later, the mayors of Huntington
Beach and Westminster together with their police chiefs showed up, along with
the Captain of the Highway Patrol barracks nearby, since our school was just
off a freeway ramp. They unanimously insisted that I should, under no
circumstances, contact the JDL and that they would provide absolute coverage
for our school over the 19th to the 20th of April. I said
that I would agree if we had a comprehensive protection plan and that I would
need to be on campus with the police that night. Everyone agreed. Sergeant
Donald Parker was appointed as the task force commander.
My office had an excellent view of
the vehicular approach to the school. On the night of the 19th, there
were two motorcycle police hidden in the rear of the campus and a patrol car
hidden behind a building opposite the school. The California Highway Patrol had
a helicopter and two cars on standby. I felt that we were reasonably prepared
for whatever might happen. I was in my darkened office with a community member
named Bill, who had attended JDL training in New York 10 years earlier. We were
issued reflective yellow vests with the word “Deputy” emblazoned on the back so
that the cops wouldn’t confuse us with the bad guys. All team members,
including me, were connected by walkie-talkies. Between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m.,
everything was quiet. I was beginning to think that maybe my hunch was wrong.
Bill was asleep! Then, at 3:20 a.m., a car slowly made its way down Willow Lane
heading towards the school. As the vehicle neared the entrance to the campus
the headlights were turned off. Sergeant Parker alerted the police to “stand
by” and wait for his command. He had a clear view from the darkened front
facing office, next to mine.
Three men exited the vehicle, and each
reached into the trunk to retrieve a large gas can. One of our 50-passenger
school buses was parked next to a prefabricated classroom. Through his infrared
binoculars Sergeant Parker could clearly see what I saw. One of the men was
spray painting a swastika on the bus, another was spraying “Gas the Jews” on
the classroom building. Then they started pouring gasoline around the bus and
the prefab building. I yelled to Sergeant Parker in the next office, “What are
you waiting for?!”
His reply: “I’m waiting for one of
them to drop a lit match; I want to make sure we can charge them with a major
felony. I’m on it, sit tight!”
One of the men soaked a rag in
gasoline and lit it and tossed it toward the gas puddle between the bus and the
building. Then all three ran towards their car. Parker yelled into his
walkie-talkie, “MAIN DRIVEWAY – GO, GO, GO”! Police vehicles with lights
flashing and sirens blaring came from all directions. Parker immediately
ordered the Highway Patrol to douse the fire since they carried fire-fighting
equipment in their police cars. The Huntington Beach Fire Department was on the
scene within a couple of minutes – by which time the Highway Patrol, having
emptied four huge fire extinguishers, had stopped the blaze.
In the meantime, the getaway car had
traveled about 150 yards before being surrounded by cops with guns drawn. A
Highway Patrol helicopter was now low overhead, lighting up almost a square
block. Between the sirens, the flashing lights, and the helicopter, the entire
neighborhood was awake, and many neighbors were in the streets in their
pajamas. I wondered what Sergeant Parker had in mind as he and four other cops
walked the three perpetrators almost a block-and-a-half through the crowd on
Willow Lane to two additional police cars that had just pulled up down the
road. Then I realized the brilliance of his strategy. As he and the other
officers slowly walked the three handcuffed, bruised, and stunned perpetrators
down the street to the transport vehicles, the sergeant was announcing to the
neighborhood that this is what will happen to anyone who attempts to deface or
vandalize the Jewish school. It was a brilliant move – because the word got out
– and from that night on, the vandalism and graffiti finally stopped! The next
day, the local newspaper printed mug shots of the battered and bruised
perpetrators with the byline, “Arsonists Caught in the Act at Jewish School Face
Multiple Felony Charges.” Kudos to Sergeant Parker!
* *
*
It was abundantly clear to me that,
in addition to Sergeant Parker and his team, I needed to thank the JDL and its
founder Rabbi Kahane for convincing non-Jews that tough Jews were ready,
willing, and able to do whatever was necessary to protect Jewish interests. It
was because the JDL’s reputation (and the myths surrounding it) had become well
known that the politicians and police FINALLY took our problem very seriously.
The JDL was seen as a force to be reckoned with.
Meyer Lansky, Tzvi Kaspi, members of
the IDF, and Meir Kahane all understood that Jews needed to act on behalf of
Jews. That doesn’t mean that we don’t work with law enforcement, as Baltimore’s
Northwest Citizen’s Patrol does. Of course we do, but the seemingly unlearned
lesson for many Diaspora Jews is that we must toughen up. These days, street punks, muggers, and random
antisemites see Jews as soft targets. That’s because most are. Antisemitism,
and overall crime, is rising as woke cities and counties fight to protect the
rights of criminals, while their police forces are becoming despondent and
increasingly impotent. It therefore behooves Jews to learn how to better
protect themselves.
Our schools, camps, yeshivas, and seminaries
should seriously consider teaching self-defense courses. It is, in my view,
vital to possess the ability and self-confidence to defend oneself in an
emergency. If we want the attacks on Jews to be reduced, then the criminals
need to know that we are not easy targets. I have a dear friend, a
distinguished rav, who is an expert in marshal arts. He is a world-renown talmid chacham, medical doctor, and
author. On several occasions, his self-defense training has come in handy, in
the U.S. and overseas.
From our beginnings as a people, it
was understood that we prayed and we fought (when necessary). The two were
never mutually exclusive. G-d is our ultimate protector, but we must do all
that we are capable of when asking for G-d’s blessings. Otherwise, we are like
the fool who crosses a street without looking and says, “G-d will protect me.”
When I was a young man, I had a job that
required me to take self-defense training. The course was called Hand to Hand
Combat. On the first day of the course, this nice Jewish boy wasn’t sure if he
would make it through the training. Forty years later, on a quiet Thanksgiving
morning, someone attempted to rob me in a parking lot in a seemingly nice
neighborhood. I cannot fully explain it, but the skills learned four decades
earlier instinctively kicked in (no pun intended). My immediate reaction was
based upon trained instincts. No thinking was involved, only reaction. The
attacker fled. Someone on an apartment balcony observed the attempted robbery
and called the police. When they arrived, it was, of course, over. One nice
policeman, observing this bearded rabbi, said it was his duty to call an
ambulance because I had a few cuts on my hand. Looking at my hand, he said, “Why
didn’t you just give the robber what he wanted.”
I said, “I can’t explain it, but
that never occurred to me.” I was grateful that I had been given the necessary
skills, many years earlier, which trained me how to react, notwithstanding
being 40 years older and somewhat slower.
To be clear – I am not supporting vigilantism. We Jews must
accept that the law of the land is the law (dina
d’malchuso). But at the same time, it is important to know how to best
defend ourselves against an attacker when there is no one around to assist us.
When we are properly trained, we become aware of our strengths and limitations
in various threatening situations, thus enabling us to react quickly and
respond appropriately.
May
our enemies be defeated! Am Yisroel chai!
Purim same’ach!
