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Moshe Katz the Beginning Four
Training with Amy Jo Giles in the early years, our very first IKI Instructor in the USA.
Soon I began traveling to the USA and Canada, eventual teaching at over 120 college campuses. Later this would spread to community centers, martial arts schools, high schools, synagogues and other non-college venues.
What began as a university/college program soon spread. Nonstudents from the community came to the lessons and took an interest. The Jewish community centers where in touch with the Jewish groups on campus and heard of the success of the program. They were eager to attract more people to their centers and so invited me to teach. Thus began a new stage in my travels, Jewish communities, and not only college campuses.
For me this was fascinating as I got to experience Jewish communities off the beaten path. I had known and lived in large Jewish communities in New York, California, Boston and Florida, but I had never ventured into the small communities of the Midwest and the South. Here I found remnants of once proud pioneering communities. Being Jewish in small town USA is not easy and over the years the younger generations became more and more integrated and then assimilated into the general society. In some places even the leaders of the Jewish community were no longer actually Jewish (by Jewish law). I have seen communities dwindle and then close shop and sell the synagogue and the community center, the same truth of American Jewish life.
Still, it was fascinating to see these small communities and how the remaining few members clung to their roots and traditions, trying their best to preserve their tradition and the legacy of their parents and grandparents. One such community was Springfield, Illinois, and it the 16 or so years that I have been going there I have seen the reduction of the community as well as nearby Illinois communities. But it was here that IKI really began.
I had heard stories throughout my travles of how dissatisfied many people were with the American Krav Maga associations. The complaints were legendary. I was truly embarrassed by some of the stories that I heard. I have always been warned that our behavior, each one of us, is a reflection of our entire people, and so we must be careful to treat people fairly and conduct business honestly. I felt I should do something about this. The opportunity came up in Illinois.
A member of the Jewish council had been looking for a place to hold my seminar. As they were driving around town, she noticed a sign that read Progressive Kenpo Karate, Krav Maga. This drew her attention.
The school was run by Amy Jo Giles and soon a deal was struck, and this is where I would hold my seminar. The seminar was a success and the conversation continued. I began to realize the dire need for a truly honest Krav Maga association in the USA, and thus the idea of IKI began to germinate. But by Divine intervention and guidance, at this very time, and at this very place I received a phone call from Dr. Jerry Beasly of the famous Karate College, that he wanted to help me establish a new type of Krav Maga association to serve the American martial arts community. These and other events coincided to create the momentum for IKI to be born. Amy would become our first instructor, our first black belt, and her school would be the first IKI school in America. I am proud that now. so many years later, we still have an active school there and a yearly seminar and reunion.
and that was just the beginning...the Big Inning was just taking place...
Purdue University
Virginia Tech Cadets, 2009
One of the early seminars in Colorado