A Fighting Chance - May 2008

After spending a good part of my adult life in Israel, it took getting attuned to south Florida life, before I first experienced the world of Israeli self defense, Krav Maga.

Living in Jerusalem in the 1990’s, my husband, who has a background in Krav Maga, taught me to increase personal awareness of my surroundings, especially in the wake of the Baka knifing attacks in the early 90’s. But beyond that, I never worried or thought even remotely seriously about the need for any sort of self-defense training.

Then I got to Florida. In the eight years since we have been here, the increase in shootings, rapes, home invasions and an assortment of other crimes has only gone up. The papers are filled daily with horrific stories. Fortunately I have never personally experienced anything, but some of our friends have. One of those friends includes a woman who works as a local bank branch manager. Her bank was robbed during the day only a few weeks ago.

Just this past December, a brutal robbery and murder of a mother and her eight-year-old daughter took place in the parking lot of an upscale shopping mall in Boca Raton. Many, many people were horrified by this terrible crime. The police have yet to catch the perpetrator.

One person chose to do something about it.

A friend of mine, local radio talk-show hostess Joyce Kaufman, is an extremely vocal advocate for many causes, including some that generate much controversy. A gun-toting advocate of the American second amendment, she is also passionate about reigning in illegal immigration to this country and the lack of media responsibility to the viewing, reading and listening public. And those are just a few of her causes.

Joyce decided she needed to personally lower the statistics of rape and murder among Florida women. Working with her station, she arranged for a free women’s Krav Maga workshop for anyone wanting to attend. As Joyce said, it was going to be her Mother’s Day gift to anyone wanting to learn how to defend themselves. And as she said, hopefully she would be giving the gift of life to mothers and their daughters by helping to potentially reduce the horrific homicide statistics in our region.

I love when Joyce takes on new causes. So I signed up for the workshop and dragged my somewhat reluctant bank manager friend along too. Many of Joyce listeners had signed up to come and only about 30 had the guts to show up. The women ranged in age from older teens to grandmothers in their 60’s and 70’s. Those of us that did attend were in for a real treat.

Not quite knowing what to expect, all of us in attendance were fairly timid participants to start. But after watching some examples of the head instructor and his trainers and students (including Joyce), we were all pulled into warm ups and learning basic moves on getting out of some potentially sticky situations.

By the time the seminar finished, I don’t think there was a timid person left. Even the grannies were throwing well placed elbows to the trainers’ necks and kicks to their groins (Yes, making contact. No faking here!). I think just about everyone left with a newfound confidence. And while we only learned a smidgen of how to protect ourselves, we were definitely better “armed” compared to before the workshop.

When I got home, even my husband was impressed with my enthusiasm and how much I learned in such a short amount of time. And I am hoping to sign up for some more sessions to not only solidify the basics of what I have already been taught but also to learn more.

Florida living has some nice, laid back bits and pieces. But the growing crime statistics have been a real eye opener. I have also become a lot more accustomed to knowing people, like my friend Joyce, who believe firmly in the need to not only be trained physically in self-defense arts like Krav Maga, but also to be armed and ready to defend themselves in that way, should the need ever arise.

In his adult years in England, my husband owned a gun and regularly went target shooting. All the years we lived in Israel, I refused to let him bring a gun into our home. He also doesn’t own one here in Florida. But when he went back to target shooting recently with a friend who owns guns, I did give in and allow him to take our very interested 13 year-old-son with him. When I told one of my close friends in Israel, she was shocked. For good reason too. I was always a peace-loving, sort-of hippie. In the old days I would have never considered saying yes to something like that, especially if it involved my children.

Why did I change? Who knows. I guess all the reality surrounding me, finally kicked in. Here’s an ironic thought: perhaps I could be the perfect advocate encouraging misinformed Americans afraid to travel to Israel because of what they hear from the media. Maybe they should come hear about recent Florida living instead!