{"id":97006,"date":"2023-10-21T01:12:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T06:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=97006"},"modified":"2023-10-21T01:12:40","modified_gmt":"2023-10-21T06:12:40","slug":"97006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=97006","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Jewish Americans Arm Themselves in Wake of Israeli Horror<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s another order coming from Hamas to kill the Jews. I happen to be Jewish, and I don\u2019t want to be killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the succinct explanation Joshua, a doctor in Los Angeles, gave for why he decided to buy his first gun this week. He\u2019s far from alone. New owners and trainers alike described scenes of gun stores and safety classes full of Jewish Americans hoping to protect themselves from the kind of slaughter that played out on October 7th when Hamas terrorists streamed over the border into Israel and ruthlessly slaughtered more than 1,400 men, women, and children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at a local gun store a couple of days ago, where my wife was doing her firearms training test, and it was full,\u201d Joshua, who\u2013like several others who spoke to\u00a0The Reload<\/em>\u00a0for this story\u2013did not want his real name revealed in large part due to safety concerns, said. \u201cThere was a line outside to get in for people to do their tests, or buy firearms, or practice on the range. And I would say it was 90% Jewish people and Israelis.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the motivation of those in line was clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know what happened in Israel. It was a horrific attack on civilians by Hamas with the tally now up close to 1,500 dead,\u201d Joshua said. \u201cIt\u2019s the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust. I never thought I\u2019d say this, but it\u2019s almost worse than the Nazis. They buried the bodies or cremated the bodies. The Nazis hid their atrocities. Hamas is live streaming their atrocities where they kill babies, shoot the elderly waiting at bus stops, rape women, and mow down young people at a music festival for peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

35-year-old Simon, an Israeli-American also living in Los Angeles, recoiled at the awful attacks. Then he too bought a gun.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching the events unfold in Israel since October 7th has been gut-wrenching and unreal,\u201d he told\u00a0The Reload<\/em>. \u201cUnfortunately for us Jews around the world, our security situation has worsened. Now is the time to arm myself and protect my family. So, I\u2019ve decided to purchase my first firearm and undergo firearm, general situational awareness, and home defense training.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Simon said he turned to\u00a0Magen Am<\/a>, a Jewish non-profit organization licensed to provide armed security services on the West Coast, when he decided to get a firearm. Rabbi Yossi Eilfort, the group\u2019s founder and president, said Simon is just one of hundreds who\u2019ve reached out for help since the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are frequently faced with responding to anti-Semitic attacks, but I can say that from what our organization has seen firsthand, the last week and a half has certainly been the largest spike,\u201d he told\u00a0The Reload<\/em>. \u201cThe day that the attack happened, we had 638 calls to our hotline number from Sunday to Thursday of last week, which for a small organization like us is a lot to balance. On an average week, I\u2019d say we maybe get 40 or 50. All of last year, we had around 950 calls to that hotline. So, obviously, we\u2019re working on rescheduling our training courses and trying to move things faster to keep up with what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Yehuda Remer and another instructor teach a firearms course in the wake of the 2023 Hamas terror attacks \/ Sean Sheridan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yehuda Remer, an author and gun-rights advocate also known as\u00a0The Pew Pew Jew<\/a>, said he\u2019s also seen massive interest in firearms ownership from fellow Jews in the wake of the attacks. He said he\u2019s received exponentially more calls and messages after this event than previous anti-Semitic violence, such as the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot even begin to tell you how busy I am,\u201d Remer said. \u201cI\u2019ve been just non-stop advising people on what to do. It\u2019s been pretty crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many who spoke with\u00a0The Reload<\/em>\u00a0noted that, despite previous wars and terror attacks, Israel has long been viewed as a safe haven for Jews worldwide. Ross, a University of Michigan alumni with a graduate degree from the University of Chicago who now works at a software company and lives in the suburbs, said the October 7th attacks pierced that feeling of safety for many Jewish people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael is the one place in the world where Jews have always been told this is home, you can go there to be safe, you don\u2019t have to worry about things,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, you know you\u2019re in sort of a hostile region where people aren\u2019t exactly your best friends. But you think about the military and security apparatus within Israel, and you just tell yourself, \u2018They have it under control, they would never let anything happen.\u2019 And I think for many Jews it was, to say the least, a splash of cold water to the face, seeing these unspeakable and horrific tragedies committed against civilians, and that they were simply unable to do anything about it. We all saw pictures and videos of the atrocities that were committed, and they literally had no fighting chance. There was no opportunity because guns are, for civilians, largely not legal in Israel. And for many Jews, they thought if it can happen in Israel, it can happen anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

He bought his first gun in the wake of the 2020 riots but said he now plans to\u00a0upgrade his collection with something more powerful<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing for me is my family, and I never ever ever want to feel vulnerable the way that these poor souls in Israel felt vulnerable,\u201d Ross said. \u201cSo, I\u2019m without a doubt going to purchase more guns. Part of it is buying more weapons, frankly. And part of it is pushing fellow Jews to buy them.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Rice, a bond trader living in Chicago who also became a gun owner in the wake of the 2020 chaos and has since become involved in the gun-rights movement, said he\u2019s heard Jews from all walks of life start asking about how to properly arm themselves. And he argued it wasn\u2019t just the attacks themselves that disturbed them. It was also the reaction in the streets of American cities and on campuses nationwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvil is going door to door looking for Jewish children to murder, rape, or kidnap, and there are tens of thousands of people here in the United States that are celebrating in the streets,\u201d Rice told\u00a0The Reload<\/em>. \u201cThe public demonstrations, statements from academics, and poisonous chants make clear there is a contingency of people in our own country who are \u2018exhilarated\u2019 at the prospect of shedding Jewish blood in America as they did in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ross agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tension and the anger is palpable,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the calls that you\u2019re seeing come out of these rallies, it\u2019s not let\u2019s get along with our Jewish brothers and sisters, let\u2019s coexist. You hear things like, \u2018From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.\u2019 That\u2019s not a call for peace. That\u2019s a call for the eradication of Jews from Israel. That literally means from the river to the sea, that\u2019s referring to all of Israel. They want they want the entire land. And these aren\u2019t isolated incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to anti-Semitic incidents across the globe. Outside the Sydney Opera House in Australia,\u00a0protesters chanted, \u201cGas the Jews.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0A\u00a0swastika was held up during a rally in New York City\u2019s Times Square<\/a>, and another was\u00a0drawn on a famous Jewish Deli in the city<\/a>. Iconography of paragliders,\u00a0which Hamas terrorists used in their attack<\/a>, has been\u00a0featured<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0numerous<\/a>\u00a0protests<\/a>\u00a0throughout the country and\u00a0the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was broad agreement among those who spoke with\u00a0The Reload<\/em>\u00a0that the recent protests did not represent mere criticism of Israeli government policies but were instead condoning the violence against Jews.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, when it was still happening, people were going out into the streets to support it. I think that holistically, the Palestinians certainly have some very legitimate beefs. But there wasn\u2019t any retaliatory action or campaign going on Saturday afternoon. It was images of grandmas slaughtered at a bus stop that were coming out, and that\u2019s just all I could think of when I saw those large groups in the streets. And a lot of these people quite honestly are unhinged, and you don\u2019t know what they\u2019re capable of,\u201d Ross said. \u201cYou\u2019re seeing these like ultra-violent chants. And for many of us, we have grandparents who survived or perished in the Holocaust. You\u2019d be unable to find a Jew who didn\u2019t have family that perished in the Holocaust. This isn\u2019t something that happened 300 years ago, and the memories have faded. The wounds of the Holocaust are still felt to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon noted the recent anti-Israeli protests have a different feel to them than those that came before, arguing they created an \u201cunprecedented\u201d security situation for Jews throughout the world. He said the \u201capathetic\u201d reaction to them has been equally troubling.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter how many reputable news outlets verify the tragedy that unfolded on October 7th and no matter how many images circulate, there are still people on that side of the protest that deny these events, or twist reality, or simply turn a blind eye,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Eilfort said Magen Am has received reports of other anti-Semitic incidents at the protests and even schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen people who were assaulted at the protests, people who were followed home from the protests, people who were doxxed because of the protests,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve also responded to calls for preschools getting threatened and elementary schools too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A Magen Am firearms instructor teaches a student how to round a corner in training \/ Magen Am<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As with many other Jewish families around the country, Remer and his family have had to contemplate taking their children out of school at points when there were heightened threats. He\u2019s even pulled security duty at a number of Jewish community events since the Hamas attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see every single person,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m sitting there with my Ruger PC charger, fully locked and loaded with a 30-round mag and my suppressor, just sitting on the front seat, completely ready to go. In case, g-d forbid, someone came.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Remer noted this is far from the first major anti-Semitic attack to garner global attention, and the others have not led many Jews to buy guns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem in my community, and I\u2019m sure it\u2019s like this with a lot of communities, is they don\u2019t think it\u2019s ever gonna happen to them,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause they don\u2019t think it\u2019s ever gonna happen to them. They don\u2019t care about getting training. It\u2019s only once anti-Semitism is on the rise will they actually be like, \u2018Oh, maybe we need to get some firearms training.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Public polling doesn\u2019t often break down American gun ownership rates by religion. So, hard data can be challenging to come by. However,\u00a0a 2005 report from The American Jewish Committee<\/a>\u00a0claims Jews have traditionally been far less likely to own guns than other non-Jews. It found just 13 percent of Jewish Americans said they had a gun in their home, and 10 percent claimed to personally own a firearm compared to 41 percent and 26 percent for non-Jews.<\/p>\n

Joshua\u2019s experience suggests those numbers still ring true. He said the negative perception of firearms in the Jewish community is another one of the reasons he didn\u2019t want to be named.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate I have to be anonymous on this, but there is a stigma attached, especially in the Jewish community, which is traditionally fairly liberal. Probably 80% vote Democrat,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re Jewish and you go running around telling people you own guns, you may be stigmatized.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rice agreed the stigma exists. He criticized American Jewish groups for discouraging armed self-defense, especially those who have filed Supreme Court briefs in opposition to expanding Second Amendment protections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a multi-generational ingrained anti-gun stigma within the Jewish community, which I\u2019ve never fully understood,\u201d he said. \u201cA whole generation of Jewish leadership (AJC, Federation, JUF, ADL, etc) has failed us by teaching young people that they could defend themselves from anti-Semitism with hashtags.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he said the fallout from the October 7th attacks has changed things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lived through the Second Intifada and numerous other operations over the last 20 years, and the feeling among the Jewish community here in the States and in Israel\u2026 I\u2019ve never seen anything remotely close to it\u2013the sense of vulnerability. The sadness,\u201d Rice said. \u201cEverybody knows somebody who\u2019s directly impacted. It\u2019s difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s had so many people reach out to him for advice on buying guns and getting their gun-carry permit that he put together a makeshift guide for first-timers. And people are following through on those queries.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday evening, after knuckle dragging for months, another Jewish father in my neighborhood asked to accompany me to my bi-monthly pistol skills class,\u201d he said. \u201cNot only did he gush at the experience after, but he was also amazed by the camaraderie and support for the Jewish people within the Chicago gun community and went home and applied for his Firearm Owner ID card. People are rightly asking themselves if they are prepared to defend themselves and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remer and Eilfort have seen the same thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the last incident, I think that I maybe had six, seven people reach out to me for firearms training, and nothing ever came from it,\u201d Remer said. \u201cBecause, you know, after a week, it dies down. And then they don\u2019t necessarily care anymore because, \u2018Oh, well, we can push it off now because everything\u2019s safe.\u2019 This time it\u2019s different. I\u2019ve had 47 people reach out to me, and I\u2019ve already given classes to a few.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A Magen Am trainer explains how to pin somebody to the ground and handcuff them during a class \/ Magen Am<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOftentimes in our community, I think people talk when they\u2019re afraid, talk when they\u2019re upset, but now we\u2019re seeing people take action,\u201d Eilfort said. \u201cWe\u2019re really, really pushing to make sure you do it right. Make sure you\u2019re buying from a reputable company, and make sure you\u2019re seeking training. Do all the things that responsible gun ownership requires. And we\u2019re doing our best to put on more trainings and just make it all as available as possible so that people have somewhere to turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ross said those who used to make fun of his interest in firearms have changed their tune.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you on a personal level, I have family who used to mock me for wanting a gun or friends who used to mock me for wanting a gun,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll tell you what, they\u2019re most certainly not mocking me now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joshua has noticed things are different in his community, too. The changes are happening quietly, but they are happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will say that a lot more Jewish people, they\u2019re not publicizing it a lot, but they are getting themselves armed,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have family. They see what\u2019s going on around the world. And this specific example, right in Israel, where evil people decided to go and slaughter entire families and babies in cribs. So, they don\u2019t want that to happen to them. And if something happens, at least we\u2019ll go down fighting. We\u2019re not going to be herded into gas chambers like they did in the 1940s.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to the story of 25-year-old Inbar Lieberman as an inspiration for that fighting spirit. Lieberman led the security team for kibbutz Nir Am during the attack and killed numerous terrorists,\u00a0according to\u00a0The Daily Mail<\/em><\/a>. While many other kibbutz were devastated during the onslaught,\u00a0The Times of Israel<\/em>\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0Nir Am didn\u2019t lose anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she heard what was going on, she went to the armory and got several firearms for her and her friends,\u201d Joshua said. \u201cThey took up positions. They were able to repel the Hamas terrorists, and they didn\u2019t lose anyone. So, that\u2019s a great example of how properly trained civilians can repel someone with bad intent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, he and his wife are working to equip themselves for a potential worst-case scenario.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife wanted a weapon as well because I\u2019ll be in the front,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, she\u2019ll be the last line of defense if something happens to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

She ended up getting a revolver because it was a bit simpler to load and operate than the semi-automatic pistol she was first interested in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to do everything in a safe manner,\u201d Joshua said. \u201cWe\u2019ve signed up for lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he hopes they never have to put those lessons into practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, God willing, neither of us will have to use any of that. I just want to be prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jewish Americans Arm Themselves in Wake of Israeli Horror \u201cThere\u2019s another order coming from Hamas to kill the Jews. I happen to be Jewish, and I don\u2019t want to be killed.\u201d That\u2019s the succinct explanation Joshua, a doctor in Los Angeles, gave for why he decided to buy his first gun this week. He\u2019s far … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rkba","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97007,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97006\/revisions\/97007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}