-The job of every Jew
is to continuously illuminate the world.
Illuminating the world can be done in many ways.
It can be done through prayer,
could be through act of kindness,
and it's also done through act of responsibility.
The Tactical Rabbi has a passion for security,
he utilized it to bring light to many synagogues.
-Eyes and ears.
-The concept of a rabbi being hyperactive
in the gun community
is not something that's often heard of.
-Antisemitism is on the rise,
and the climate is always either hotter or colder,
but it always comes back to a point where it's hot.
-Reload, fast, fast, fast.
-Having people in the synagogue
carry firearms is a debate.
-One of the mistaught verses of the Bible
is "Thou shalt not kill,"
and that's not the actual translation.
It's "Thou shalt not murder."
Judaism has a very specific set of rules.
If it comes to a point where it's us or them,
and we feel like we're going to get killed,
you have an obligation to protect those around you,
and you are allowed to kill.
Of the many things that we offer at my company,
we give active shooter courses.
So we actually have an upcoming course
that we're going to be giving a private lesson
to a guy who is very interested in self-defense
for his specific community.
-So we're going to keep the gun holstered for now
until we're actually at the range now,
now that we're using ammo.
-My name is Raziel Cohen,
and I am professionally known as The Tactical Rabbi.
So I've had a passion for firearms for a very long time.
I ultimately ended up getting my rabbinical ordination,
and I opened up a business in firearms training.
And the two kind of collaborated
together into The Tactical Rabbi.
So I grew up in a religious family,
in a very religious community. My father was born in Iran,
and my mother was born in Morocco.
My grandfather was actually the chief rabbi of Morocco,
and they ultimately had to flee from Morocco,
because he had an official death threat put against him.
While he was on his way home,
a guy came and stabbed him in the eye,
and he survived miraculously.
Like, it was a knife, like, right to his face,
and right after that, the guy left him there and said,
"I'm going to be back to finish you off.
So they fled that night, in the middle of the night,
ended up moving to the U.S., where my parents met.
But growing up in Los Angeles, I had a pretty comfortable life.
I was raised into the Chabad-Lubavitch community,
and me turning into the Tactical Rabbi
I think was something that developed over time.
I had a passion for this since I was a kid.
So I have pictures of myself dressed as an Army man,
because that was something that I wanted to be a part of.
And then, when I turned 18,
being able to purchase my first firearm,
then I started going through as many classes
as I'd be able to attend to gain
as much knowledge as I can in that field.
-In Judaism, we have this concept of never being satisfied
with where you are, always learning more.
-So at least once a week,
I try to connect with a friend of mine.
We study some talks of the rabbi
who's the leader of the Chabad movement.
I felt that I wanted to become a rabbi more
because I knew it was in my heritage.
So being able to have just general knowledge
on certain laws and certain rules in Judaism,
and being able to know that for yourself,
I think is very important.
So we're starting with -- Hanukkah.
-Yeah, actually, Hanukkah is very close
to what Rabbi Cohen does.
There were a group of people in those times
who took it upon themselves to defend themselves,
thereby defending the Jewish population.
They were outnumbered, and they said,
"We're not going to let Judaism be obliterated,
Jews to be obliterated."
And thank God we're in America now,
a place where one can believe what they want
without being attacked for it.
And that's something that we strive to maintain.
We don't like violence. We don't resort to violence,
but we have to protect ourselves,
and we protect what we believe in.
-So right now, headed to a synagogue
that we're going to do a security assessment for.
So I knew this rabbi for quite a while.
He's a very, very nice guy.
I believe he's either building a new part of the facility,
or adding to, I guess, the existing.
Cameras are only a very small part of that,
but that's usually where a lot of people like to start.
So do you have all the cameras pulled up?
We'd be able to look at that? Awesome.
-We're going to be adding on a new building.
We're going to be coming from here.
-Oh, got it. -This is going to be building,
building until here, to this wall.
-Yeah.
-This is going to be ultimately a mikvah,
but that's further down the road.
-Okay. -That's going to have to have
a whole separate security system.
-What I'll do for today is, I'll go through --
first through the perimeter, and then security systems,
cameras, and then also for the internal systems,
for, like, the active shooter protocol for the kids programs,
as well as also what we're going to do inside the main shul.
-Unfortunately, antisemitism is on the rise.
With what happened in the last few years
with the shooting in Pittsburgh and San Diego,
and just recently in the yeshiva in Denver,
it's something that requires leadership to be focused,
and not to live with your head in the sand,
and ignore the realities out there.
-I've definitely seen, over the past few years,
a rise in those style of attacks.
We've seen attacks on mosques. We've seen attacks on churches.
We've seen attacks on synagogues and schools,
and it's a huge epidemic.
-The old school of thought's just to ignore it,
and nobody's going to bother a religious organization
or a synagogue, or a church --
has unfortunately proven to be incorrect.
At the same time, having people in the synagogue
carry firearms is a debate.
The Torah doesn't say, commandment number 246,
thou shall hire a security guard,
but the Torah does tell you
to use the resources that are out there.
And if you don't, you're lacking in leadership skills.
-Moving up.
-Our active shooter class is probably the most
popular classes that we offer, and that's really when we see
a huge variety of different people.
We have security officers, law enforcement, rabbis.
We had priests. We had just regular,
average day Joes that'll come through the course.
-Okay, so you know how this drill works.
We're going to go through it again, right?
Five rounds, left side, five rounds, right side,
three rounds center. You go at your own pace, okay?
So I'll demo it really quick. Going hot.
-We're going to be starting off with fundamentals,
and being able to understand the basic usage
and handling of a firearm,
all the way escalating to being within an active shooting,
and being within an environment that you're being shoved around,
or you're being pushed around.
-Your stance is very important,
because if we're talking about dealing with an active shooting,
you're going to get hit by someone or something.
Guarantee impacts only. Reload, reload, reload,
fast, fast, fast, guaranteed impacts only.
When you move, make sure your finger's off the trigger.
We don't want an accidental discharge.
-I'm not a medical professional,
but part of the way that the course is structured
is that you give someone a taste of what it's like
if you have an arm bleeding.
What are you able to do to make sure
that you're still effective in the use of a firearm?
-Faster, faster. Kneel, kneel. Okay, re-holster.
You are currently using the Israeli-style method.
I want you to try the American-style method.
As long as you're impacting the target, I don't care.
That's really what it comes down to.
So I want to draw the gun, point to the target.
-I'm from New York.
I grew up in a Jewish Orthodox home.
I actually found the Tactical Rabbi on Instagram.
That's where I hooked up with him at first.
I did have prior experience with other trainers,
but I feel like Raziel is -- has been giving me a lot,
a lot that I haven't gotten from others.
-Deep breath out. Fire.
Finger off the trigger, excellent shot.
Excellent shot. Perfect shot.
-I don't think you could've made a nicer shot than that.
-No, that's -- that's pretty solid.
-When I train with the Tactical Rabbi,
I definitely feel like it's more
than just coming to a formal training.
I feel like he's actually giving me his heart,
not just his thoughts.
In a way, it's kind of very therapeutic.
You literally have to forget
about everything else in your life,
and you're just training now.
You just have your target in front of you.
The streets of New York and anywhere I go publicly,
it's a very common thing that I'll have people
say antisemitic things, either shout them,
or sometimes it's just muttering under their breath.
That's not something uncommon, and unfortunately,
something that I actually got used to.
Antisemitism is always on the rise.
The climate is always either hotter or colder,
but it always comes back to a point where it's hot.
That's just a Jewish history
that just proves itself over and over again,
over the past few thousand years.
I believe that was two years ago,
during a Hanukkah celebration,
there was a guy that came in with a machete,
and started attacking people.
And, end result, he actually ended up
killing one of the congregants of that synagogue.
-So, Hanukkah, we have this menorah.
We take a physical object, and we take a candle.
We take oil, and we take a wick.
And the second we light it, it becomes something spiritual.
Light, flame is not something
that is physical the same way a table and chair are.
It lights up the place around it.
It has an effect, an ability,
a power that most physical objects don't have.
If we all do that, if we all light up our menorahs,
if we all light up our lives and those around us,
imagine what that could do, right?
We could light up the world. That's powerful. That's big.
-There are different mindsets of people
saying that if you truly believe in God,
why would you carry a gun to -- you know, to defend yourself?
You're like, well, God should be able to protect you.
You don't believe that he's able to protect you?
-It's not a contradiction.
We're tasked with what we have to do,
but we're still open to miracles.
We don't rely on them.
We do our part, but we're open for God's help.
-Skirting your responsibility is not a productive way
to bring your light to the world,
and if you have a skill set
that could enhance people's experience of Judaism,
and you don't do that,
you're not using your God-given talent to illuminate the world.
The Tactical Rabbi has a passion for it.
He didn't ignore that passion.
He utilized it to bring light to many synagogues,
to allow many people to come into synagogue
and pray comfortably, without worry.
That is, in a sense, idea of illuminating the world
in his way.
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