The barbarous attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, saw the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Virulent antisemitism has since increased here in the U.S. As a result, a sea change in attitudes toward gun ownership has begun.
The Talmud—the primary source of Jewish interpretation of the Torah—states: “If someone comes to kill you, rise and kill him first.” This clear commandment to defend one’s life with lethal force if so threatened is central to Jewish belief, namely that life is the most-sacred thing God has given us, and it must be protected from all threats.
As Americans, we are fortunate to have the natural right to keep and bear arms enshrined in our Constitution, which allows Americans of all creeds to “rise and kill him first” if threatened with grievous physical harm. Sadly, this situation was not true in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, nor was it true in Nazi-occupied Europe from 1939 to 1945. Yet, for most American Jews, firearm ownership was seen as something non-Jews did. It was definitely not an option to be pursued or supported by the vast majority of Jewish citizens.
That is rapidly changing. What many American Jews have belatedly realized is that no one is coming to help us. Those who seek to harm Jews have never been louder or more openly antisemitic in this country’s history, and the only way for an individual to adequately protect themselves is to take that responsibility into their own hands.
“Since Oct. 7, I have seen an unprecedented surge in demand for training from American Jews,” said Yonatan Stern, founder of the Cherev Gidon Israeli Tactical Training Academy, a firearms training school devoted to teaching responsible Americans combat-shooting skills of the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli security forces. “The horrendous attacks in Israel were a wakeup call, but more than anything else were the sickening, violent, antisemitic, pro-Hamas protests taking place on college campuses and urban areas all across America. That really brought it home to many American Jews and shattered their sense of security that they had held for so long.”