In L.A., children of Holocaust survivors say ‘Never Again’ — with a gun

[lostinblue 1,989]

In L.A., children of Holocaust survivors say ‘Never Again’ — with a gun

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2014/05/19/news-opinion/united-states/in-l-a-children-of-holocaust-survivors-say-never-again-with-a-gun-2#ixzz32Z11HC8K

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — It’s a sunny morning in Southern California and Lea Rosenfeld, a soft-spoken, bespectacled woman who looks like a Jewish grandmother, squares her feet, faces her target and squeezes off five shots with a handgun.

All of them miss.

“I never even held a gun in my hands before,” she later confesses. “I’m still shaking.”

Still, Rosenfeld keeps shooting in the hot sun. She says she’s doing it because of her parents and what they endured: Both were Holocaust survivors.

“My question has always been why they didn’t fight back, and my mother could never give me a good answer,” Rosenfeld told JTA. “They weren’t prepared for it, they didn’t believe it was going to happen and they didn’t have anything to fight back with.”

That’s what motivated Doris Wise Montrose, president of the Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, to organize the recent day of firearms instruction at the Angeles Shooting Range in northeast Los Angeles.

Montrose’s organization is more of a one-woman operation than a group. By her own account, it consists of Montrose and “a humongous email list.” The organization is dedicated, according to its website, to “The New Holocaust Resistance.”

Much of that has consisted of Montrose organizing lectures with a decidedly right-wing bent. She has hosted such figures as Eugene Volokh, the libertarian-leaning UCLA law professor, and Pamela Geller, the anti-Islam activist behind the current bus ad campaign in Washington that features a photograph of Hitler and the grand mufti of Jerusalem with the line “Islamic Jew-hatred: It’s in the Quran.”

“I think what Doris is trying to do is to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive so we will not forget its important lessons,” said Alex Kozinski, the chief judge of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and a friend of Montrose who has spoken to her group.

Recently, however, Montrose decided that lectures and emails were not enough.

So it was that on a Monday in mid-May, she and seven others — three of them children of Holocaust survivors — gathered to receive “point and shoot” instruction from Itamar Gelbman, 32, a former lieutenant in the Israel Defense Forces.

“We talk about defending ourselves, but we have to do something aside from sharing email articles,” Montrose said.

Gelbman — a strapping 6-foot-3-inch grandson of survivors who has served as a bodyguard for Britney Spears (“Never again,” he vows) and run for Congress from Texas (he lost) – began by running through safety instructions. He taught the handgun technique used by the IDF: square feet, square shoulders, both eyes open.

With varying degrees of accuracy and confidence, the participants blasted away at paper targets depicting an armed shooter. After each cycle of shooting, Gelbman assessed the results.

“He’s dead.”

“He would definitely be on the floor.”

Who precisely the attacker would be is unclear. Gelbman frames his instruction mostly in terms of home invasions, but it’s clear attendees are concerned about more than just their homes.

“When the Muslims say they want to kill us and drive us into the sea, I believe them,” said David Sievers, a retired cancer surgeon and reserve sheriff’s deputy who turns out to be a crack shot.

“No cattle car for me,” Montrose quips after one good round of shooting.

Over lunch, Les Hajnal, a Holocaust survivor from Hungary, points out that often it was not the Nazis but locals who rounded up the Jews in countries such as Poland and Hungary.

“You know what the Hungarians did to the memorial of the shoes?” Hajnal asked, describing a memorial to murdered Jews on the banks of the Danube in Budapest. “They defecated in it. Such nice people.”

Montrose warns that anti-Semitism is rising again (a recent Anti-Defamation League survey found that approximately 1.1 billion people around the world harbor deeply anti-Semitic attitudes).

While Montrose and Gelbman believe there is a growing interest in self-defense – the firearms class quickly sold out – they know that the men and women who turned out for the training represent a distinct minority within the Jewish community.

Diaspora Jews prefer to be passive and non-confrontational rather than fight back, Gelbman says.

“I think that Jews in general, they give the benefit of the doubt, and they don’t like to be aggressive,” he said. “I think that’s one of the things that was a problem in the Holocaust.”

As the day wraps up and the shooters start to head home, Rosenfeld stays on, firing round after round. Gelbman rewards her with a target of his own creation: a depiction of the late Muammar Gadhafi as a zombie. Gelbman hands Rosenfeld a Glock 9 mm handgun and steps back.

She squares to the target, aims and blasts away, hitting the zombie Gadhafi dead-on with all five shots.

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2014/05/19/news-opinion/united-states/in-l-a-children-of-holocaust-survivors-say-never-again-with-a-gun-2#ixzz32Z1DgZmo

[Peikko 1,575]

What a stupid article. I am sure that the holocaust would never have happened if all the jews had had guns, right? Yeah, that's what I thought too.

[Crashed~N2~Me 970]

I'm missing something..?

These people think there might be another Holocaust.... In Los Angeles?

Edited May 23, 2014 by Crashed~N2~Me

[GandD 5,966]

Some folks think they'll have to fight for their constitutional rights against an oppressive government power grab in the near future. The good news is, these people are typically old and will be gone before you know it.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I'm missing something..?

These people think there might be another Holocaust.... In Los Angeles?

No, there won't be another holocaust. Because they have guns, you know. Or at least that appears to be the argument.

[Crashed~N2~Me 970]

No, there won't be another holocaust. Because they have guns, you know. Or at least that appears to be the argument.

I'm reading the story and when I read about Gelbman...this guy popped up in my memory,

[Sousuke 1,214]

What a stupid article. I am sure that the holocaust would never have happened if all the jews had had guns, right? Yeah, that's what I thought too.

At least at first, most Jews probably weren't expecting to be killed. When Lord Kitchener created the first concentration camps they were a tool of pacification (still terribly wrong) and not to eradicate.

[lostinblue 1,989]

Three people killed, one badly injured at Jewish Museum in Brussels 'terrorist act'

Belgian authorities say fourth person was seriously wounded after gunman opened fire inside and outside museum, then flees in a car. Mayor Yvan Mayeur says violence most likely a 'terrorist act.'

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/people-shot-death-jewish-museum-brussels-reports-article-1.1804306#ixzz32h6uR1lq

The war on Jews .... continues.... The people in this article will not lay down like sheep as before.

[Crashed~N2~Me 970]

Lost - I get your vibe but...it ain't just a war on Jews...it's a war involving Jews. (if) Memory serves me correctly...the Jews have been involved in wars since time memorialized. They got a whole book about their own conquests = The Bible.

[Peikko 1,575]

History is poorly taught in the US, very poorly taught indeed. Giving individuals guns is not the answer to issues like the holocaust, it wasn't then and it isn't now. The current interpretation of the second amendment is responsible for some very serious misunderstandings of how power is wielded and how to combat bigotry and genocide.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I dated the son of Holocaust survivors for a while. Pretty cool dude. He's a mediator who works with parties who are trying to resolve sticky litigation issues, and he's exactly the type of person you want in that job -- calm, even-handed, seeking justice for both sides. And he is vehemently anti-gun. So the children of some Holocaust survivors are gun aficionados? Okay. Just like there are some people who are Korean-Americans in LA who like guns (I know some) and some who don't (ditto). This doesn't actually say much about anything. Nice attempt at an article though.