Video: Rambo Rabbi Training Chosen Guns

Well, the New York Post earned its fifty cents today. Let's start with the cover, which at first glance seems like a work of fantasy but actually documents a real-life, tough-talking rabbi and his plastic pistol-packing "God Squad." Jewish security forces are hardly new to New York (Hasidic communities like the Satmar Jews in Williamsburg have their own private patrols, for instance), but none have produced a training video as uplifting as this one. A mix of Wes Anderson, Adam Sandler, and the "Sabotage" video, it depicts Rabbi Gary Moscowitz, who was an NYPD cop for nine years and holds a black belt in karate, training his fellow Jews to defend their synagogues. Enjoy!

Moscowitz is founder of the International Security Coalition of Clergy, whose mission is to train Jews in self-defense and advance fighting techniques in the event of a terrorist attack on a synagogue. He says business was slow for his Coalition until May, when the FBI arrested a group accused of plotting to blow up synagogues in The Bronx. But now Moscowitz's 100-hour synagogue self-defense course is in high demand. With his course, you'll learn how to:

execute a somersault while drawing a gun
use a table as cover from gunfire
take down a terrorist by the neck

Moscowitz tells the Post, "Jews are not like Christians. If I turn my cheek, I'm coming around to make a kick." The rabbi says the NYPD isn't qualified to guard synagogues because they don't know members of the congregation, so they can't stop a terrorist who wants to put "a yarmulke on, say, 'Happy holidays,' and blow the place up." NYPD spokesman Paul Browne says Moscowitz was fired from the force in the early 1990s, but claimed not to know details. Regarding the Rabbi's criticism of the NYPD, Browne cryptically added, "Blessed are the tight of lip, for they shall resist speaking ill of the ill-informed."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on September 4, 2009 9:31 AM

Comments [rss]

MrManhattan

"Moscowitz tells the Post, "Jews are not like Christians. If I turn my cheek, I'm coming around to make a kick." "

I wish this guy was President on 9/11. Hey, can I buy you and your friends tickets to Saudi Arabia??

NannyState

Oy! Vat a chaloshes mit these rabbis!

JacqueMehoff

what does the mayor say about this? nothing at all?

and what if other clergy were allowed to do this? would it be called terrorism or self-defense? I wonder, hmmmmm....

JenChungsBaby

When I was a kid in Brooklyn I had a rabbi who carried a gun. Except he said it was for the niggers (his words, not mine).

mrouge

more power to 'em. the glib racist comments aside.

eyekantspel

lol, what a bunch of clowns. video gold.

matty

I think this guy should worry more about washing his hair than being blown up at a kew gardens temple.

jchez

Failed terrorists are bumbling fools to be laughed at; those who succeed are monsters. Actually, both are the same. It doesn't take much to kill someone; that bumbling fool, Richard Reid, almost blew up an airplane with his shoes.

DownandoutNYC

You know... When the sh&%^ really goes down, I'm not sure I would choose to hide behind a plastic table.

I also love the analysis portion on justifying gun carrying on shabbat. An excellent example of faith. Your clever mastery of semantics will surely fool he whose same should not be said......

Thespis

The best part may be when he tries to slide across the table and it collapses. Not to worry -- I'm sure in real life that plastic table won't collapse when you go all T.J. Hooker on it. (And it will stop bullets, too.)

seven

Absolutely hilarious.

And I love how they talk ominously about the Bronx bombing plot, which was in fact never a plot, just a bunch of bumbling fools egged on by the FBI.

fatsdomino

If clerics at a mosque were caught making this video to "protect themselves" they would be arrested as terrorists.

Vigilante rabbis are a scary thought.

Clarice City

Just leave the guns out of it, all you need to defend yourself is a plastic card table...and some bawls.

seven

being completely oblivious to how ridiculous you look = great comedy. That's what made early Daily Show segments so great, before people started catching on.

Clarice City

Is this where Officer Witriol trained?

Blue387

What, no Desert Eagles?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Eagle

boomshanka

oh, this should end well.

gg101

Somersaulting middle aged men will scare the bejesus (or memoses in this case) out of terrorists. Just wait til the advanced classes when they all learn how to do cartwheels.

freddynyc

So how exactly do these pistol packing rabbis guard against a car packed with explosives careening towards their synagogue...

silver

Defending the synagogue from the jews who come at night to paint swastikas on it is serious business.

http://gothamist.com/2008/01/22/man_with_aresen.php