Jewish leaders practice defending from knife attacks at antisemitism summit

At a Jewish conference in Amsterdam, participants pair up and face one another before one of them lunges at the other one with a butter-knife, prompting the unarmed person to holler “Stop!” and block the attack.

The activity is part of self-defense training led by an Israel-born security expert from Belgium for about 200 participants — many of them older than 60 –- of a conference focused on fighting antisemitism.

The participants, several of them husband and wife, practice repeatedly for about 20 minutes how to defend against a knife attack.

“It’s good to train but it’s crazy that it’s necessary,” says Ellen van Praag, a vice chairwoman of the European Jewish Association, the Brussels-based lobby group that organized the conference in Amsterdam, titled Fighting Back for Our Future.

An event bringing together EU officials, lawmakers and Jewish community leaders, it aims to provide practical solutions to the explosion of antisemitism in Europe following the Hamas onslaught on Israel on October 7.

The security expert, who asks not to be named, disagrees with van Praag’s assertion that the training is unnatural.

“It’s true that there’s been a huge increase in demand by Jews for self-defense courses,” he says. He adds he has trained 700 people in Antwerp since October 7, more than he usually trains in five years. “But it’s not just about antisemitism or terrorism. You always need to know what to do, especially as a woman. This is a natural adaptation to reality.”