August 28, 2012
If you reached this blog by Googling "Israel" and "Taekwondo", then I apologize and warn you that this article is not about Taekwondo (TKD) at all.
I am not a TKD practitioner and thus I will not write about it; and that is my point. I am Jewish, I live in Israel and have lived in Israel most of my life, I grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust, I was in Israel during the 1967 Six Day War, the 1970 War of Attrition, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, missed the First Lebanon War (away for studies), back home during the Second Lebanon War and the Gulf War. I live and breath Israel and even wrote a book on the topic, (see below). I have trained in many martial arts but have devoted myself to teaching, spreading and continuing the active development of Krav Maga.
I will not speak about TKD, I will leave that to the Koreans. I am not saying that one cannot master the Blues unless one is Black, I am not saying one cannot learn Krav Maga unless they are Israeli. What I am saying is that if you want the real deal you should be connected, affiliated, and training with someone at the source.
You want Shaolin Kung Fu, make a trip to China at some point. You want Krav Maga, come to Israel.
I see many Krav Maga associations where the headquarters are in countries other than Israel. This confuses me. I would not join an Chinese Kung Fu association centered in Jerusalem, it just seems not quite kosher. And yet I see Krav Maga associations based in all sorts of European countries. They all claim to be authentic Krav Maga, again, for me this is confusing.
On one hand this is great, very flattering. There was a time, not long ago in fact, when no one wanted anything to do with Jews or Israel. We were being kicked out of every land, denied citizenship, and ...treated not so kindly. And today everyone is an "Israeli wannabe" (Some who dreams of being an actual Israeli, but is not). So it is a nice turn of events.
We live in a world where truth is scarce and all sorts of tricks are used to confuse people. In the age of the internet this is even greater; anyone can claim anything, anyone can post anything, they do not even need to indicate the source or even sign their own name to it. Truth becomes difficult to find. For example the history of Krav Maga; I see every site has the same "cut and paste" story, I guess this makes it true. Only problem is - it is not true at all but the fabrication of certain organizations who were very successful at spreading their version of the history of Krav Maga. No one questions anything. On our site we have a more accurate version, including a link to an interview with an expert on the topic. Just a few days ago in an article in the Jerusalem Post about Judo there was a mention of Moshe Feldenkries who they credited as being the one who "developed Krav Maga". No mention at all was made of Imi Lichentenfelf, the man (falsely) recognized worldwide as the single founder of Krav Maga.
But of course if you live outside of Israel you would not know this, and if you do not read Hebrew you are unable to read many of the original documents about Krav Maga. I have even seen one Krav Maga organization where the Hebrew on the diploma was totally wrong. Moral of the story - if you are doing Krav Maga you should be connected to Israel.
Our Krav Maga, IKI Krav Maga, is deeply rooted in Jewish and Israeli history. The lessons of our history, the Bible, the wars, are all part of our approach to the topic of self-defense and survival, after all we have survived as a people longer than any other nation. But at the same time we are totally connected to the present and the changing needs of self-defense all around the world. Daily I receive questions from members worldwide; car-jackings in South Africa, machete attacks in Brazil, prison conditions in the USA, arrest tactics in Canada, surviving life on a college campus, bars, parking lots you name it, daily the questions arrive on my computer. We deal with these questions, we are Israeli and International, thus the name "Israeli Krav International". We are here to share our experience with the world, and to learn from the world. And, we are never content, we will continue to search, develop and evolve.
Krav Maga History
Come to Israel, participate in user friendly but intensive Krav Maga and see your skills improve dramaticaly. learn about Israel and the roots of Krav Maga.
Buy the Kindle version
Israel a Nation of warriors on Kindle