Many Jews Embrace Guns After Tree Of Life Shooting

The mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue has already faded from the news cycle. In part, it was replaced by the massacre at the Borderline Bar and Grill last week. However, part of it is that for some reason, it didn’t do a great job of advancing the gun control narrative the media seems to prefer in the wake of such events.

Advertisement

Meanwhile, Jews were left wondering where to go.

Anti-semitism has been a problem for the Jewish people for as long as there have been Jewish people. It’s not likely to go away, either. That’s unfortunate since any form of hatred against an ethnic or religious group of people is beyond stupid, but we don’t get to just decide how the world will be. We have to deal with it as it is, which may be why a number of Jews are arming themselves in the wake of the deadly synagogue shooting.

There are two types of synagogues: those that believe in G-d and those that believe in government.

After the mass shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue, the government synagogues turned to the government with calls for gun control. And those that believe in G-d, turned to the Almighty.

And then, trusting in the Almighty to stand with them against danger, they went out and got their guns.

Morning services at the synagogue these days begin and end with guns, with talk of tactical courses, firing ranges and concealed carry permits. “If someone comes to kill you, get up early to kill him first,” the Gemara, the Babylonian Talmud, that massive encyclopedic work codifying Jewish law, advises.

In synagogues across America, the teachers, actuaries and small businessmen rising early for morning prayers are preparing for a mass shooting attack. Every synagogue I have been to lately has members who carry concealed firearms. Members are attending security courses, training to identify, disarm or kill active shooters, while also preparing for the ugly aftermath of another synagogue massacre.

CPR courses. Stop the bleed. Triage.

While one faction of American Jews, the noisesome lefty one, shouts about gun control, the quieter, religious one, is choosing self-defense over gun control, and preparing to face another attack.

“I’m a daughter of a Holocaust survivor,” a 61-year-old Jewish woman was quoted as saying. “I lost all my aunts and uncles in the Holocaust, and I’m going to go down fighting. I’m not walking into a gas chamber. I’m not going to stand there like a sitting duck… and get shot at. I refuse.”

Yonatan Stern, an IDF veteran running tactical training courses at Cherev Gideon (Gideon’s Sword), suggested that the demand is coming from the more politically and religiously conservative Jews.

Meanwhile at a lefty protest in Philly, Rebecca Hornstein, a member of the If Now Now anti-Israel hate group, who backed anti-Semites like Keith Ellison and Linda Sarsour, claimed that nobody wanted guns.

But quite a few real Jews did.

Advertisement

Now, I’m just a gentile, so I’m not sure my opinion will matter all that much, but I have to question the sanity of any Jew who favors giving sole authority over firearms to the government. Especially in a world where anti-semitism has a history of taking power.

While we’ve been fortunate in this country in a lot of ways to not have to deal with much of that, even if we have had anti-semitic leaders through the years, part of why that’s been the case is due to our Constitution. It protects all people.

The Second Amendment, however, protects the Constitution.

Why would any Jew want to be disarmed knowing the history of the Jewish people is beyond me.

I’m just glad that they’re not speaking for the entirety of the Jewish community. I just hope they’re not speaking for even a majority. This writer seems to believe that they’re not, and I truly hope he’s right.

You can’t say “Never Again” and have it mean anything without having the means to resist it.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Advertisement
Advertisement