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self-defense

Bring your gun to synagogue

Last week’s attacks in France should be ample evidence that the late Rabbi Meir Kahane was right when he popularized the slogans, “Every Jew a .22” and “Never Again!”

Etta Israel Campers Learn Skills for Life

Mark Worland — six-foot-something, dressed in tight black and skinhead bald — grabs Navid by the arm.

\”Come with me!\” he barks.

\”No!\” screams Navid, barely 5-feet tall.

Navid throws himself on his back, locks the bottom of his feet to Worland\’s knees, and shields his face and head from Worland\’s flailing fists.

\”Great job,\” says Worland, a self-defense specialist, shaking Navid\’s hand and helping him up, as Navid\’s friends applaud.

This self-defense class is part of a repertoire of life skills that Navid and his peers are learning at Independent Living Skills, a summer program for developmentally disabled adults run by Etta Israel Center, a mid-Wilshire nonprofit for people with special needs.

It’s Not Our Right to Challenge Israel

Whatever our opinions about Israel\’s claim on the territories, its attitude to Palestinian nationalism or its rights to self-defense, no one was asking us to risk our lives for Israel\’s sake.

I had neither the right nor privilege to challenge the government of Israel\’s decisions on how to protect its citizens. If I did so, I was in some way undermining that government and endangering Israel\’s existence in a hostile world.

In a cynical age such as ours, this parochial attitude might seem charmingly out of date. And yet, this central tenet of a Zionist education remained embedded in my consciousness throughout high school, through my student leadership days and even into my 30s, when I had to make strenuous efforts to channel my bitter opposition to the Oslo process into nonpublic activism.

The Necessary Fight

With all the discussion, confusion and controversy about the Bush administration\’s planned actions against Saddam Hussein,it\’s ironic that President Bush, a born-again Bible reader, appears to have rejected the Christian position and adopted instead the Jewish stance on self-defense and responding to evil people.

The Way of No Way

Drawn in part by the recent movie, \”Enough,\” in which actress Jennifer Lopez uses Krav Maga to even the score against an abusive husband, a long-established Orange County class in self-defense is seeing a jump in popularity.

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More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.