Local Krav Maga expert helps Jews in self-defense
By Seth Mandel
Feb. 15, 2008

Training Tony Soprano in hand to hand combat may be good career experience for a self-defense professional, but Princeton native and Israeli Krav Maga instructor David Kahn has another target audience in mind.

Krav Maga is the official close-combat defense system of the Israel Defense Forces, and Kahn is hoping to bring it back to its roots: Helping Jews learn combat avoidance and effective self-defense.

"I'm hoping to reach out to the Jewish community," Kahn said. "It's always been paramount to me to focus on the Jewish community, because Krav Maga was developed by Jews, and for Jews, to defend themselves."

James Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano on HBO's hit "The Sopranos," was a student of Kahn's and is also a partner in the Israeli Krav Maga U.S. Training Center -- a 3,000-square-foot state-of-the-art training facility located in Hamilton.

Kahn, who grew up in Princeton, runs daily classes there. He's also trained federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, in addition to the general public.

"It's designed for everybody, so that they can use it in a time of need," Kahn said. "It's not strength-specific or dependent."

Kahn said the art doesn't just pay lip service to its Israeli roots, but contains a key ingredient that makes it well suited to the Jewish community.

"It's typical yiddishe kup thinking, where everything is connected," Kahn said. "It's very Israeli; it's very direct and aggressive -- if necessary. But on the other hand, the idea is to walk away from conflict before it evolves into conflict."

"There's two parts," he explained. "One is usually common sense and restraint -- it's discipline. And the other thing is to know how badly you can hurt somebody, and you need to be able to walk away without having to do it."

Kahn is a fourth-generation Princetonite; his grandfathers helped found the Princeton Jewish Center. He played football for Princeton University, and wanted to learn self-defense to keep active -- though he wasn't interested in something that took years to learn.

He transferred to the University of Miami, where he saw someone wearing a shirt that said "Krav Maga Israeli Martial Arts". He inquired about it, and the man wearing the T-shirt soon became Kahn's instructor in the discipline.

After three years of private instruction, Kahn was sent to Israel to further hone his craft and begin his instructor certification program. That program ended up being one-on-one instruction with a master of the art; Kahn, now 35, still studies with that instructor today, as the American representative of the Israeli Krav Maga Association.

Kahn said the word "krav" in Hebrew has come to mean "fight" or "combat." The word "maga" means "proximity" or "close." The terms together mean "contact combat."

Krav Maga was developed by Imi Lichtenfeld in the 1930s for Jews in the Middle East, especially pre-state Israel, to defend themselves and ward off marauders.

Kahn understands that these days anything that seems violent that is associated with Israel will often be considered especially aggressive. But, he said, Krav Maga teaches conflict avoidance first, physical action last.

"First and foremost it's awareness training," Kahn said. "Obviously, the best way to solve a conflict is to avoid it."

He added that the heavy presence of law enforcement officials taking classes there both gives the practice legitimacy and acts as a deterrent against those who may want to use the art to cause trouble.

Kahn not only encourages the Jewish community to take lessons at the Hamilton facility, but he also would like to introduce it at Jewish schools. He said the focus, discipline, and concentration Krav Maga teaches are all valuable tools in school and in life, not just in combat.

"If I do it correctly, not only will I be enhancing their ability to defend themselves, but they'll also be able to enhance their ability to study," Kahn said. "It's been proven that physical activity is a great outlet and it also hones the mind. If they got a good hour of Krav Maga practice in between Torah study, Talmud study, it'll help. I promise them."

Kahn said it will also help keep students out of danger as much as assist them if they are even in danger, which is especially beneficial for younger students who may not have much self-control or the best judgment.

"If you've got trouble on one side of the street, and you can walk on the other side of the street, by all means," Kahn said. "It's hard for young kids to do that, but through this kids program that we're developing, I try to inculcate that into them -- that this is only to be used when your physical welfare is at stake, when somebody's attacking you. It's not to be used to show that you're a tough Jew or anything else."

The response from law enforcement personnel has been "fantastic" according to Kahn, and the Web site, www.israelikrav.com, has a long list of commendations from soldiers, US Marshals, FBI agents, police, and others.

Kahn wants to work with local Jewish synagogues and other organizations to put together Sunday courses. Kahn said he will come to them, and that there is much students can learn from just one day's worth of lessons.

"It was developed for the military to be learned in a very short time, and what we work on is gross motor skills; in other words, it's instinct more than anything else," Kahn said. "And it's amazing how many people have come to a one-day course ...it gives the kids, particularly, a sense of pride in Israeli self-defense."

Kahn also noted the positive side of the IDF that Israeli Krav Maga students see first-hand, both in the art's inherent compassion -- which Kahn said reflects that of the IDF -- and as a tangible benefit to the two nations' partnership.

"It's a great way to cement the Israeli-U.S. connection," Kahn said.

Kahn said they would also like to establish a series of summer camps in Hamilton for Jewish families to learn Israeli Krav Maga together. It can be useful for all ages, and the diversity of interest in Krav Maga can be seen at any of the daily classes, Kahn said, which usually have up to 30 students in each, of varied ages and backgrounds.

"It's been such a wonderful one year that we've been open," Kahn said, adding that there has been great interest from Jews and non-Jews.

"It's all walks of life really who like this, and it's nice to see that symbiotic interaction between people who have probably very little in common other than being nice people and Krav Maga."

For more information on Israeli Krav Maga, visit www.israelikrav.com, or call Kahn at the training center, located at 127 US Highway 206, Unit 9 (directly behind Champion Fitness), Hamilton, at (609) 585-MAGA.