Saving lives: Kahn '94 teaches Krav Maga self-defense system

When David Kahn '94 headed off to law school, he knew he did not want to be a lawyer, but he never guessed he would end up studying and teaching the art of Krav Maga, an Israeli self-defense system.

A history major who wrote his thesis, "South Africa and the American Civil War," under professor James McPherson, Kahn hadn't heard of the technique before he started law school at the University of Miami.

One of his first friends there introduced him to Krav Maga, and to ease the stress of his first year of graduate school, Kahn began practicing it regularly.

"I was so disaffected by law school that I started training almost every day of school," Kahn said. He enjoyed the art so much that he has made it his life's work.

Krav Maga means roughly "contact combat" in Hebrew. It was created in the 1930s by a Czech, Imi Lichtenfeld, who developed the system as a defense against anti-Semitic violence, Kahn wrote on his website, israelikrav.com. The system, designed as a survival technique, includes submission holds as well as kicks to the groin, punches to the throat, eye gauges and bites.

"It really is brutally effective—even deadly, in some situations," Kahn said. "That's why it's essential that it not be abused or mistaught."

Krav Maga has been adapted "for all civilians as an effective, practical form of self-defense," Kahn said. It is recognized by the Israeli Ministry of Education, is taught in Israeli schools and is the self-defense system of the Israeli Defense Forces.

In 1998, after his law school graduation, Kahn went to Israel to learn the art from the best in the world—Grandmaster Haim Gidon, Lichtenfeld's handpicked successor and president of the Israeli Krav Maga Association.

Even Kahn, who played football at the University, living through double practices, found the training difficult.

"It was intense," he said. "It was six to eight hours a day with the Grandmaster, in August, in the most humid, oppressive heat I've ever endured."

Despite the difficulty, it was worth it, Kahn maintains.

"It's one demonstration of the fact that if you go to the source, it's going to be the best," he said.

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Upon completion of his tutelage under the Grandmaster, Kahn was the only American appointed a member of the board of directors of the IKMA, and he is responsible for some of Krav Maga's popularity in the United States. He now teaches the system in New York City at David Barton Gym and the 92nd street YMCA, giving them a practical blend of self-defense skills and advice on how to spot trouble before it happens.

New Yorkers are not all shy, though, Kahn attested.

"They're very aggressive," he said, laughing. "I had a woman try to choke me [by surprise]. I told her I wasn't going to retaliate, but never to do that again."

A native of Princeton—as son of the former owners of Abel Bagel, Kahn attended Princeton High School—Kahn has a continuing training relationship with Borough, Township and New Jersey State Police.

"Most recently, I was down teaching instinctive combat shooting to SWAT teams of the New Jersey State Police," Kahn said. "In the next month, I'll be working with federal, state and local agencies on advanced programs" like homeland security, he added.

Kahn has also taught in the past at the University's Center for Jewish Life, and on Jan. 12, he will volunteer his time at David Barton Gym to give a two-hour seminar on the basics of self-defense, for the Princeton Women's Network. Teaching women and helping them gain self-assurance, Kahn said, is some of his most rewarding work.

"Women are just so much more confident after learning a few basic things," he said. "Simple things, like . . . using a car mirror to see if someone is following you, or using an everyday object [as a weapon], like a key, or a pocket full of coins."

Kahn said that unfortunately, some of his students have had to use their Krav Maga skills, which have served them well. He takes special pride in teaching his pupils to use only as much force as the given situation warrants.

"It's important not to injure somebody unless absolutely necessary," he said. "I won't teach anybody who wants to use it for illicit purposes."

His personal dedication to Krav Maga runs deeper than practice, though—Kahn is convinced the system saved his life. One day, as he was biking out of the law school parking lot, he saw that an oncoming speeding car would not be able to stop before it reached him.

"I recognized the danger, and rather than have my legs crushed, I dove off the bike and rolled," he said. "I went through the [car's] windshield, but I survived unscathed."

The quick reaction and agility that saved Kahn were thanks to Krav Maga, he said. Onlookers applauded, he described, because the accident must have looked like a movie stunt. But it convinced Kahn to study and teach Krav Maga for good: "It made me realize how important it is to disseminate the system to all who want to learn."