Posted on 11/09/2018 9:56:32 AM PST by Louis Foxwell
God and Guns in the Synagogue Jews across America choose between self-defense and gun control. November 9, 2018 Daniel Greenfield https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271885/god-and-guns-synagogue-daniel-greenfield
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
There are two types of synagogues: those that believe in G-d and those that believe in government.
After the mass shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue, the government synagogues turned to the government with calls for gun control. And those that believe in G-d, turned to the Almighty.
And then, trusting in the Almighty to stand with them against danger, they went out and got their guns.
Morning services at the synagogue these days begin and end with guns, with talk of tactical courses, firing ranges and concealed carry permits. “If someone comes to kill you, get up early to kill him first,” the Gemara, the Babylonian Talmud, that massive encyclopedic work codifying Jewish law, advises.
In synagogues across America, the teachers, actuaries and small businessmen rising early for morning prayers are preparing for a mass shooting attack. Every synagogue I have been to lately has members who carry concealed firearms. Members are attending security courses, training to identify, disarm or kill active shooters, while also preparing for the ugly aftermath of another synagogue massacre.
CPR courses. Stop the bleed. Triage.
While one faction of American Jews, the noisesome lefty one, shouts about gun control, the quieter, religious one, is choosing self-defense over gun control, and preparing to face another attack.
After the Pittsburgh shooting, the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco recycled a gun control tract from 1999 warning that, "14 young people below the age of 20 are killed by guns in this country every day". That talking point about inner city gang violence had nothing do with the mass shooting of unarmed Jewish worshipers, but establishment politics tend to run on lefty autopilot.
But meanwhile in South Philly, far from San Fran, but all too close to the Pittsburgh massacre, religious Jews were going out and buying guns.
“I'm a daughter of a Holocaust survivor,” a 61-year-old Jewish woman was quoted as saying. “I lost all my aunts and uncles in the Holocaust, and I'm going to go down fighting. I'm not walking into a gas chamber. I'm not going to stand there like a sitting duck… and get shot at. I refuse.”
Yonatan Stern, an IDF veteran running tactical training courses at Cherev Gideon (Gideon’s Sword), suggested that the demand is coming from the more politically and religiously conservative Jews.
Meanwhile at a lefty protest in Philly, Rebecca Hornstein, a member of the If Now Now anti-Israel hate group, who backed anti-Semites like Keith Ellison and Linda Sarsour, claimed that nobody wanted guns.
But quite a few real Jews did.
The debate over firearms in synagogues has reached into Jewish communities from New York City to Philadelphia, and from Chicago to Colorado Springs, where Mel Bernstein of Dragon Arms offered local Rabbis in the area free handguns or AR-15s, along with training and ammunition.
“You have to have the tool to fight back, and this is the tool,” the Jewish gun store owner said.
The local ADL branch was unhappy with Bernstein’s offer, claiming that armed clergy sent the wrong message. Five local rabbis however thought that it sent the right message and took him up on it.
“The 97-year-old Holocaust survivor did not have good people that carry firearms during the Holocaust. But there are good people that carry firearms in American now,“ Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, the former head of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement, declared. “They should bring them inside with them to protect the people who are there.”
“If you are a Jewish police officer and you are off duty, when you come to worship, you should come with your handgun. If you are a Christian police officer, when you are off duty,” he urged in a press conference outside a Jewish institution, “come with your handgun.”
"No. No. No," Council Speaker Corey Johnson tweeted. "This is not how we heal and move forward."
Assemblyman Dov Hikind, an Orthodox Jewish politician from Brooklyn, however endorsed Adams' message and announced, "I am registering immediately for a gun license. And I encourage other Jews to do so to protect their institutions and synagogues."
David Pollock, the director of public policy and security at the New York Jewish Community Relations Council, however insisted that guns wouldn't work. "Having armed guards is not a panacea."
Rabbi Gary Moskowitz, a former NYPD officer and martial arts expert, who offers firearms training to Rabbis, has urged every congregation to arm its members.
“They tell me, ‘It’s not the Jewish way,’” he argued. “How can the rabbis say that it’s not the Jewish way when we just need to look at the Bible to see how David fought the Philistines?”
When Moskowitz had previously proposed allowing congregants in New York City to carry guns, he met with a cold response from local Democrats.
“We need fewer, not more, guns on the street, period,” City Councilman Mark Levine had insisted. “This would make us less safe, not more safe.”
But after Pittsburgh, unarmed synagogues increasingly don’t feel safe.
In Chicago, Jonathan Burstyn, the son of a volunteer policeman, guards his synagogue on the Sabbath and provides firearms training through Chi-Defense. A photo posted by Burstyn at the 2018 NRA Annual Meeting shows a group of Orthodox Jews touting some serious artillery.
In Virginia, Edward Friedman, the editor-in-chief of the NRA's Shooting Illustrated magazine, carries a concealed weapon to a Chabad Orthodox synagogue with the permission of the Rabbi.
“It’s something that’s incredibly important to me, and I think it should be to every single practicing Jew who goes to synagogue,” Friedman said.
At Temple Sholom, a small Reform synagogue in Springfield, Ohio, Rabbi Cary Kozberg took down the gun-free-zone sign. “Some realized that a gun-free zone can be an invitation.”
“I’m so not advocating that every Jewish person who goes to synagogue walk in with a gun,” he said. “But there are people who are OK with that, and those people need to be listened to.”
While an out-of-touch secular establishment still claims to speak for Jews on gun control, the growing number of religious Jews are far more comfortable with firearms. And after Pittsburgh, more places like Temple Sholom are willing to question the suicidal fanaticism with which the Left clings to gun control.
The choice between self-defense and gun control is at also a choice between dependency and independence. It’s the quintessential dilemma out of which the United States of America was born.
And more Jewish organizations are stepping forward to advocate for the Second Amendment.
“With all due respect, singing songs, lighting candles and posting the phrase 'Never Again', regardless of the number of exclamation points, is not going to stop anyone from killing Jews,” Doris Wise, the founder of Jews Can Shoot, wrote. “Fear of being shot by armed Jews. That’s what will stop them.”
“Self-defense is a God-given right. Here in America - all of America - we have the very good fortune to have the Second Amendment. Honor it, yourselves and all good people by making use of it.”
Jews Can Shoot is one of a number of rising Jewish organizations that connect Jewish civil rights to the right to bear arms.
The idea is not new to Jewish history.
Zionism began not with irrigating the desert, but with arming vulnerable Jewish populations. It’s a story that traverses Jewish history and goes back all the way to the very dawn of the Jewish monarchy.
When Shaul was anointed as the first Jewish king, the Philistines had disarmed the Jewish population leaving them without even a blacksmith, worrying, ”Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears” (1 Samuel :13:19), until King Shaul and his son, Yonatan, were said to have received spears from heaven.
Then they led the rebellion against Philistine rule and created the first Jewish kingdom.
After the Jews returned from the Babylonian exile, the Book of Nehemiah relates that when the Arabs came to besiege Jerusalem vowing to kill the returning exiles and end the rebuilding of the Second Temple, the Prophet Nehemiah assembled the people behind the wall with “swords, spears and bows.”
And as they built the Temple, of which the present synagogues are only lesser models, struggling to raise the wall against the Arab invaders, they “worked with one hand, and held their weapon with the other”.
Today, the synagogues that believe in G-d, Jews are taking the prophet’s advice. "Do not fear them, remember the Great and Awesome G-d, fight for your brethren, for your sons and daughters, for your wives and your houses." (Nehemiah 4:8)
And after morning prayers, the men leave still talking of active shooter training and firing ranges.
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Thanks. Someone should let Daniel Greenfield that it’s perfectly fine to put the “O” in God. No spacer needed. If someone is offended then they don’t have to read the article.
I don’t see a conflict.
Having guns to enable quick reaction against crazed murderers is a good thing.
Ping! Amen!
“...I don’t see a conflict. Having guns to enable quick reaction against crazed murderers is a good thing....”
Absolutely. The only thing stopping a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Been that way since the beginning. When seconds count, the cops are minutes away.
At our church, we have an “active shooter” plan and our ex-military and LEO members are armed to the teeth. We’ve worked with our local SWAT to be better prepared and improve our plan.
Our church would be a bad one for some crazed azzhole to pick for that kind of BS. However, the SWAT team would likely not be needed...just the coroner and a body bag.
Since most mass killers are evil AND stupid this act by synagogues 'that believe in G-d' will also protect those synagogues that 'believe in Government'... Works for me.
I seriously wonder if “More” might be less. “More” is lethal weapons deployed in venues with many endangered innocents. “Less” would be nonlethal weapons for the purpose.Suppose you had a stationary, but accurately aimable, weapon which fired baseballs with a velocity of 100 mph built in to the facility. That’s not likely lethal - but dangerous, and certainly enough to give any malefactor something to think about besides committing murder.
That would be more expensive than a gun, if only because it wouldn’t have a big market. And you still might need a gun as a last resort.
What Truly Caused the Pogrom of 1938
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/11/what_truly_caused_the_pogrom_of_1938.html
“Since taking power in 1933, the Nazis had tightened the existing gun control laws. All German citizens, including Jews, were required to register their weapons, and for every firearm purchase, they must obtain a special permit from the authorities. In September 1935, all Jews were stripped of German citizenship. All Jews, without exception, were declared “untrustworthy” and deprived of most civil rights. Then, starting in December 1935, the Jews of Germany lost the opportunity to buy firearms and ammunition, but the Nazis had not yet executed a widespread confiscation of the existing weapons and ammunition.
Finally, in March 1938, a new gun control law was passed in Germany. In this law, the only mention of Jews was in the part that declared a total ban on Jews from participating in the production and trade of firearms and ammunition. ...
There is every reason to believe that the catalyst was not the murder of the third secretary of the German embassy in Paris, but rather a series of articles printed in the German morning newspapers on November 9, 1938. Their reports about the practical completion of the seizure of weapons from Jews served as a trigger for the pogrom. “
And then, trusting in the Almighty to stand with them against danger, they went out and got their guns.
Morning services at the synagogue these days begin and end with guns, with talk of tactical courses, firing ranges and concealed carry permits. “If someone comes to kill you, get up early to kill him first,” the Gemara, the Babylonian Talmud, that massive encyclopedic work codifying Jewish law, advises.
My very good Jewish friend Harvey -----, had his Bar Mitzvah at the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue, BUT, Harvey is a real practicing Jew, a gun carrier, a millionaire, a 70+ year old guy that still works 60-80 hours a week {and loves it}, visits Israel and prays at the Wall every year, and will kill you if you threaten him or his family.
The real Jews are conservatives, the secular jews are whores and pimps, much like al sharpton and jesse jackson {the Righteous Brothers} are fake blacks.
Just think if the Jews had had this mentality when Hitler was around. They probably still would have gone down, but they wouldn’t have been marched onto the trains like herd animals.
“No. No. No,” Council Speaker Corey Johnson tweeted. “This is not how we heal and move forward.”
We can walk and chew gum at the same time. We WILL defend ourselves, either because others will not, or because no matter how much they may wish to, they can not...and, simultaneously, we will be happy to engage in whatever discussions and education necessary to make such attacks by haters less likely, because maybe we can stop or slow down the creation of haters that way. Oh, and part of the education is that Jews shoot back.
“They tell me, ‘It’s not the Jewish way,’” he argued. “How can the rabbis say that it’s not the Jewish way when we just need to look at the Bible to see how David fought the Philistines?”
So what IS the Jewish way, forming neat lines to walk into the gas chambers, without causing trouble? Or is it similar to 3, count’em THREE separate and very significant events in Jewish history that speak to the Jewish way being to fight for ourselves and our ideals:
1) As indicated in Exodus 13:18, “So God led the people around [by] way of the desert [to] the Red Sea, and the children of Israel were armed when they went up out of Egypt.” ARMED, even right after the 10 Plagues when God fought for them, the Jews were ARMED to fight their own battles if necessary.
2) When Haman, one of the chief advisors to the Persian King, tried to murder all of the Jews under Persian jurisdiction, Queen Esther was able (with the unseen aid of God) to convince the King that the Jews should be able to defend themselves...and in Esther, Chapter 9 it is detailed how the Jews of Persia rose up and defended themselves, killing about 1,000 people in the capital of Shushan, and about 75,000 in the provinces of the empire.
3) Channukah celebrates the liberation of the (2nd) Temple from the Greek Syrians, who had defiled it and had forbidden Jewish worship there. It wasn’t liberated with words, it was liberated via an armed revolt over the course of decades, initially led by Judah the Maccabee, a legendary hero of Jewish history (legendary enough to have a statue at West Point! https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/3874565/jewish/Judah-Maccabee-at-West-Point.htm). Here is more on the actual history of Channukah: https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/102978/jewish/The-Story-of-Chanukah.htm
The bottom line is that “the Jewish way” isn’t to just take whatever is dished out to us, it is to fight for our faith, our land and our lives. It is what ANY person of ANY faith must do - if something is worth a lot to you, you have to be prepared to defend it.
As for me and mine, I’m in South Texas and our synagogue has a trained and organized group ready to defend then entire congregation. On any given Sabbath or holiday, there are at least 8-10 of us (myself included) there including 2 who were in the Israeli special forces - ARMED. We also have plentiful doctors and healthcare professionals, with appropriate equipment, to handle those who may be wounded in an incident. We are, in light of the Pittsburgh murders, seriously considering having one or two ARs to be able to handle any armor-clad attackers.
These ghetto Jews who generally are non-religious and who are generally Leftist in political orientation, presume WRONGLY that they speak for both Judaism and for other Jews. The don’t know Judaism’s history, nor its tenants regarding self-protection, and they have the Middle Ages ghetto mentality of “don’t upset the ‘goyim’ [non-Jews].” Well, it is all fine and well to get along with others - we all SHOULD strive for that - but it is NOT fine to sit back and do nothing while being victimized on a personal or a community level.
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Bttt.
5.56mm
Your comment got my mathematical mind working on a response to your idea.
For any given weapon, I envision a probability function. The independent variable would be "the amount of damage done to the target". Killing the target immediately would certainly be at the far right extreme of the horizontal axis. A miss that doesn't even distract the target would amount to zero effect and would be at the extreme left of the horizontal axis.
Somewhere between these two extremes is a value which represents the elimination of any potential for harm by the target. Anything below this value would represent an effect which leaves the target with a possibility of further harm to the people he is attacking.
The vertical axis would represent the probability distribution for the particular weapon. The nature of a probability function is that the total area under the curve must add up to 1. That is, there is a guarantee that there must be some outcome predicted for every incident with the weapon.
As a first example, let's examine what studies have found for handguns of various calibers. Unlike what is typically shown in the movies, shooting somebody with a handgun does not immediately result in the person dropping dead and stopping the attack.
Let's assume that approximately 95% of the time, if you shoot an attacker and hit him with a .357 magnum handgun, the attack will stop. The damage to the attacker will range from practically none all the way to death. Five percent of the time, the attack will continue. If we include the real possibility of not hitting the attacker, then the actual probability of stopping the attack has to be reduced. Instead of stopping the attack 95% of the time, you perhaps only stop the attack 50% of the time due to limited skill. This is why most self defense courses teach students to fire twice and then consider whether or not the attack is continuing.
Given the above scenario, it is altogether possible that the attack might continue even after you fire several shots. Let's say that your response to the attack takes 5 seconds in total. How many innocents can the attacker kill in 5 seconds? Let's assume 5.
Law enforcement officers often encounter people high on drugs who show a dramatic ability to tolerate the pain and shock caused by being shot. They may eventually die of their wounds but they can do much damage before the attack stops.
Now we examine your baseball weapon. We need to construct the same chart for it that we did for the .357 handgun. What percentage of the time will a baseball fired at 100mph stop an attacker? Is it as much as 50%. It can certainly kill if it hits an unprotected head, but that is a relatively small target. If you watch baseball, you know that sometimes the batters can dodge a wild pitch. Even if an attacker is hit by such a weapon the chances that the attack would continue would almost certainly be much greater than defense with a handgun.
Let's say that successful defense with a baseball takes just three times longer on average than defense with a handgun; 15 seconds versus 5 seconds. That might be TEN additional deaths caused by the attacker. Remember that we are talking about a person attacking a crowd and not caring who he hits. The defender is obligated take careful aim and minimize damage to innocents.
The unfortunate bottom line for compassionate people is that attempting to protect the perpetrator of a deadly attack comes at the possible harm to innocent people. That is the reality that governs effective response to deadly attacks. Compassion for the attacker is simply misplaced.
Finally, one of the factors underappreciated by those who are uncomfortable with guns is that attackers choose easy, somtimes helpless, targets. Attacks on police stations are very rare. Attacks at firing ranges are rare. Attacks on banks and armored cars are rare. What is not rare is attacks on schoolchildren, compassionate worshippers, and disarmed party-goers.
Don’t bring a batting cage to a gunfight.
CC
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