Israeli UFC fighter Natan Levy trains New York Jews in self-defense
Mixed martial arts star teaches seminar for Krav Maga program, part of a larger push for community security training in the wake of Oct. 7
Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.
NEW YORK — Israeli mixed martial arts fighter Natan Levy coached a roomful of Jewish New Yorkers on how to manage distance in a fight using striking combinations and footwork during a seminar on Sunday.
“You don’t need to be the fastest in the world, but you need to have the right rhythm,” Levy told the crowd.
“We’re going to go one, one, two, and move,” he said, demonstrating how to throw two quick jabs, followed by a more powerful cross and a step backward, away from a counter.
The students then dispersed around the mats to practice the combination, catching their partners’ punches with boxing gloves.
Levy’s seminar was part of a larger push among Jewish New Yorkers to learn self-defense since the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel and ensuing surge in antisemitism in the city. Jews are targeted in hate crimes more than any other group in New York City, and programs teaching Krav Maga, an Israeli self-defense system, have reported a spike in interest across the Jewish community.
Levy, 33, was born in France and grew up in Herzliya, in central Israel. He started his fighting career in 2016, and in 2021, made his debut in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the world’s premier mixed martial arts competition. He is the only Israeli on the UFC’s roster, where he has two wins and two losses in the lightweight division.
The Sunday seminar was organized by Guardian Self Defense, a group teaching Jewish New Yorkers Krav Maga, and was one of a series of events Levy is hosting this week in New York City. He is also scheduled to hold several seminars for Jewish college students.
“It’s time to change and this year, this group is starting to change,” GSD founder Joe Richards told the group at the start of the event. “The war is on. We’re living through antisemitism like it’s the 1930s.”
Among those in attendance Sunday was former Hamas hostage Andrey Kozlov, an MMA fan who was in New York to organize an upcoming exhibition of his artwork at a Manhattan gallery. Kozlov was rescued from Gaza in an IDF operation in June. Levy wore a yellow pin in solidarity with the hostages on his shirt during the seminar.
Many of the attendees were regular students at GSD classes. The organization brings in specialists for periodic seminars, such as Levy. Past instructors at seminars have included a lawyer who discussed when it is legally permissible to use force on the street, a medical professional, and a specialist in Brazilian jiu jitsu, a combat sport that focuses on fighting on the ground. GSD’s programs are marketed toward Jews and most attendees are Jewish, but non-Jews are welcomed and attend as well.
Mixed martial arts and Krav Maga differ, but there is overlap between the two disciplines. Mixed martial arts combines different fighting styles, but still adheres to rules to protect participants, such as bans on eye gouging, while Krav Maga focuses on no-holds-barred methods to incapacitate an attacker and escape danger. Ben Cousins, a GSD instructor, said Levy could teach the students lessons specific to mixed martial arts. The sport’s sparring practices could be applied to Krav Maga training, for example, to teach students how to handle a longer fight, Cousins said.
“There’s no rules in Krav Maga. You can do anything you need to do to defend yourself, and it’s very, very nasty,” Cousins said. “It’s a good mixture for some of the guys who’ve been in Krav Maga for awhile to learn a little bit different style. Like, ‘How do I last more than a minute in a fight?’ Because Krav Maga, everything’s about quick, quick, quick, end the fight. MMA can go on for five minutes, 10 minutes.”
Levy also showed the students, most of whom had prior training in Krav Maga, the finer points of striking. At one point, Levy demonstrated a striking combination that ended with a kick to the right side of the opponent’s torso.
“Why am I doing the body kick on this side?” He asked the class.
“The liver,” one student said.
“The liver is on this side,” Levy said, pointing out the organ’s location, just below his ribs. “It’s a knockout blow.”
The attendees pointed to the breadth of Krav Maga’s appeal in the Jewish community. There were secular Jews in their twenties and religious, middle-aged men and women wearing tallit and dresses. Since October 7, self-defense programs have catered to an array of New York Jewish communities, including Reform Jewish families in Manhattan, Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn and children on Staten Island.
Cousins, a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement based in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, said the community’s approach to self-defense has changed in recent years due to antisemitic assaults. In one recent incident, last week a suspect attacked a group of men in the neighborhood with metal shears. GSD has separate men’s and women’s classes in Crown Heights that have filled out at around 45 participants.
“Among religious people, it’s always been a stigma — ‘Fighting is not good. Putting your hands on somebody is not good,’” he said. “Now I have schools calling me up, saying, ‘Can you train our kids?’ Because they realized it’s almost a necessity.”
GSD, a nonprofit, is part of an array of interlocking community groups working in Jewish community defense in the US. The Anti-Defamation League engages in advocacy and surveys antisemitism. The Community Security Initiative monitors threats, works with law enforcement and enhances the security of Jewish institutions in the New York region. It mostly recently helped thwart a threat over the weekend, when it alerted law enforcement to a suspect who had threatened a New York synagogue and was arrested upon entering the city. One of the groups CSI updates about threats is the Community Security Service, which trains volunteers to protect synagogues and community events. A handful of the group’s volunteers attended Sunday’s seminar.
The seminar filled to maximum capacity at 55 attendees, Richards said. He explained GSD aims to teach both self-defense skills, and impart confidence to Jews who are concerned about antisemitism, and said Levy was a model for both. Levy regularly speaks out against antisemitism and in support of Israel.
“If you want to be able to speak up in support of Israel and defend yourself, your friends, your family, you need to have confidence. Confidence comes from training and skill work, and he does it,” Richards said.
GSD runs programs in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Miami, Florida, and Austin, Texas, Richards said. The programs combined train around 200 regular students, around 50% more than before October 7th.
Tsuriel Eichenstein, from Crown Heights, started training Krav Maga around five years ago. He said the seminar taught him new ways of thinking about managing distance in a fight.
“Each trainer is giving a different take. When you get someone with a UFC history, you don’t say no to something like that,” he said. “It’s more for the students coming in to learn from someone like him to be able to be down on the street and be able to have that confidence.”
