Krav Maga Tour and Train Day 5

Day five begins with coffee, some Hebrew, discussions about Israeli history and culture and how all this comes together in terms of how Krav Maga is practiced today. I feel the guys are really getting the picture, they are getting the feel of the country. The previous day some of the guys tried to visit a certain historic military site and found themselves being targeted by sinpers and shown the door, in Israel security always comes first.


We begin our training with Seated self defense What to do if you are attacked while seated, not a typical dojo situation but whent that can happen in real life.







We move on to Krav Maga Ground Defense. The difference between this and MMA type grappling is we keep it street practical; simple, good for all sizes, we do not look for locks or submissions, just get out of harms way.






On the way to lunch we spot a heard of sheep and goats




Greg enjoys a plate of Shakshuka while Justin has the humous.



Tim Hillis from Arizona finally gets to taste "Botz" (mud), real Turkish coffee. Turns out he likes it, quite different from StarBucks.




Afternoon
We view a video about World War Two and discuss the dilemmas both Jews and non-Jews faced during this difficult time. The members are getting more of a feel for what it felt like for a Jew in that time; surviving Nazi Europe, begin turned away by the Americans, not allowed into Israel by the British, and then finally having to battle the Arabs for sheer survival. This is where Krav Maga mentality comes from; we have no alternative.

Mount Herzl Our next stop is the Mount Herzl military cemetary and memorial. This solmn place honors both the memories of those fighting for the State of Israel and those who fought on many fronts before the establishment of the state. Among those honored are 250,000 Jews who were killed as combatants in World War Two fighting for the Red army against the Nazis.




We see a group of typical Israeli girls who came to pay their respects to those who made Israel a reality.



Fred Heins from Holland, Robert Amos and Justin Tarin from USA, pay their respects to David Raziel . David Raziel was the commander of the Irgun, a Jewish milita that helped establish the State of Israel.



Hannah Szenes (Hebrew: חנה סנש‎) (Hungarian: Szenes Anikó) (July 17, 1921 – November 7, 1944) was a Hungarian Jew, one of 37 Jews living in Israel, who were trained by the British army to parachute into Yugoslavia during the Second World War in order to help save the Jews of Hungary, who were about to be deported to the German death camp at Auschwitz.




Szenes was arrested at the Hungarian border, imprisoned and tortured, but she refused to reveal details of her mission and was eventually tried, and executed by firing squad. She is regarded as a national heroine in Israel, where several streets and a kibbutz are named after her, and her poetry is widely known.

Poem by Chana Szenes

My God, My God, I pray that these things never end, The sand and the sea,

The rustle of the waters,

Lightning of the Heavens,

The prayer of Man.

אלי, אלי, שלא יגמר לעולם

החול והים

רישרוש של המים


ברק השמים

תפילת האדם


Head stone of Danny Hass of blessed memory. Danny was an American student at Bar Ilan University in Israel. I attended Bar Ilan shortly after him, my brother knew him. He was a role model for many students. A popular student, expert martial artist and firm supporter of Israel, when the Lebanon War broke out he volunteered. He was one of the first of many American/Israelis to fall in combat in the two Lebanon wars. His sister lives in my community and is related to me by marriage.



IKI members from the USA, Germany and Netherlands, honor the memory of the fallen.



Evening


In the evening we trained a Jerusalem family. This family lives and works near the Old City of Jerusalem and trains in Krav Maga purely for self defense; this is the real meaning and purpose of Krav Maga. Our international team joined with the locals for a training session in the park in Jerusalem.







Yosef learns to defend against a knife attack



A group shot after training in the park across from the U.S. Consolate.




Post taken from Moshe Katz blog www.your-krav-expert.com

~Craig