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Brooklyn Basement Days
BY MOSHE KATZ
CEO
ISRAELI KRAV INTERNATIONAL
September 22, 2026, Israel
Moshe Katz, a few years ago, I never became a businessman, but life takes unexpected paths. New York, 1985.
With the change of seasons our mind drifts, Time, Space, seem to be fluid. The mind has its own memory and its own time. Time and Space are not set; they exist in their own realm and can come and go. It is 2026 and I am thinking of the next IKI Krav Maga tour, Germany, Italy, I must prepare, but suddenly it is no longer 2026, I look around and the surroundings are different. The buildings bring back memories; It is 1985, Brooklyn. I am at the home of my rabbi on 41 street and 16th Ave and another guest is present. He is what they call a Starker, (Shtarker) a Yiddish term for a Strong-Man. I am talking about my training at the Kyokushin dojo in Manhattan and he asks to see my defenses against a kick. He tells me, with complete confidence, that if I tried a block like that on the street against a man like him, I would break my arm.
He is involved in unofficial community patrol. An informal "community watch" where they walk the street at night looking for those that don't belong, don't fit in, those who might be looking for trouble. The Jewish community is vulnerable. The members of the community are generally not fighters or tough guys, and they easily identified by their traditional clothing, but a few take a stand. They will not allow the community to be easy prey. Many in the community are either Holocaust survivors or their children. Yiddish is heard on the streets. Movie theaters don't exist. Houses of Study and synagogues are on every street.
This Starker shows no signs of fear, just brute strength and calm confidence. He reminds me of members of the "Chaya Squad", Chaya meaning Beast in Hebrew and Yiddish, created by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane of Blessed Memory, to patrol the streets of Brooklyn and protect elderly Jews from those who wish to rob them. He is not a black belt in any karate dojo, his experience comes from the streets, from standing up when the ugly head of racism appears. He is one of those who refuses to back down, to bend a knee to the antisemite.
I guess I must have passed some test as he invites me to join their training. He gives me an address.
It is past dark, I am looking for the address, it is 1985, clear as day, I am there. I am looking for the address of the "school", I am walking, looking down at the numbers. Finally, I find it. Steps going down into a basement. The basements in Brooklyn are a world of their own. I too live in a basement, that is where the out-of-Towners, outsiders, immigrants, transients, live, in the shadow of the "established" community where everyone goes back three generations, and matches are arranged between families to marry off the young ones to the appropriate families. I am not one of those. Basements are also where some small synagogues meet for prayer, or late-night mystical studies. But this is a Jewish Fight Club, for the streets, for real.
I walk down the stairs; I can see every detail. It is unkempt, the walls are covered with mildew and peeling paint, the air is filled with a pungent odor and sweat, there is an assortment of random equipment scattered around the "training hall". I am greeted casually and welcomed. Everyone's experience is welcomed. There are no ranks, no set instructors, no katas, no rules, only "what worked for you in your most recent street encounter".
It is again 2026 and I realize that was an unconscious nod to my future, a sign of things to come but it would take me many years, decades, to return to this Space, this vision. I was young, I was not the instructor, I was not the "Krav Maga expert", I was not the man of 1,000 seminars. I was just a young guy being exposed to a Truth I had missed at the dojo. The dojo was great, full-contact fighting, hard training, but this was real. The street was the teacher, the judge, and the experience that counted. The only objective was to stand up to the age-old antisemite, the Jew-hater, and say we will not be victims. We will not be pushed around.
I feel the footsteps again, I am young again, and I know the journey has just begun. Now I am the "Splinter" of the group, the old guy telling the young ones that "techniques" and "systems" are not enough. We start from the street, from the home invasion, from the attack, and we learn our lessons from there. Life is the lesson; life is the application. The rest is ego.
It is 1985, it is 2026, it is 1985. The time is now.
Moshe Katz, 8th dan Black Belt, Israeli Krav Maga. Certified by Wingate Institute. Member Black Belt Hall of fame, USA and Europe. Author of over 15 books about martial arts and Life.
Understand the Israeli Fighting Mentality - Israel a Nation of Warriors by Moshe Katz
What is the cultural background of Krav Maga? What makes it unique? What makes the Israeli military so effective? Why are Israeli security systems used all over the world?
What are the Biblical origins of Krav Maga and who was the first Krav Maga instructor?
What weapons and military strategies did our Biblical ancestors use?
How has Krav Maga developed in Israel and what are its goals?
All that and more in this unique book.
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