NJ rabbi promotes gun ownership, offers weapons training to US Jews

New Jersey rabbi uses social media to encourage American Jews to arm themselves and become proficient with firearms because of rising antisemitism since Oct. 7.

By World Israel News Staff

An Orthodox rabbi known online as “the Tactical Rabbi” is drawing growing attention in the United States as more Jewish communities seek firearms instruction and security training amid a sustained rise in antisemitic threats.

Rabbi Raziel Cohen, 29, has built a public profile around teaching Jews how to use firearms, respond to active-shooter scenarios and organize security teams for synagogues and community institutions. His National Defensive Firearms Academy, founded in 2019, says it has trained thousands of people, including more than 5,000 over the past two years, according to Ynet.

Cohen, who has about 77,000 YouTube subscribers under the name “The Tactical Rabbi,” was recently shown training students at a private range in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, where participants practiced with AR-15 rifles and other firearms.

He told NorthJersey.com that “Jews today understand that the only person who can protect their lives and their families is themselves.”

The training reflects a broader shift in parts of the American Jewish community, where synagogues and communal organizations have increased security after years of deadly attacks and, more recently, a surge in threats since Oct. 7.

The Anti-Defamation League said it recorded 6,274 antisemitic incidents in the United States in 2025, down from a record 9,354 in 2024 but still the third-highest annual total since the group began tracking such incidents in 1979.

The ADL said physical assaults were higher than ever, with three people killed and at least 300 people targeted in antisemitic assaults.

Federal hate-crime data has also shown Jews continuing to be targeted at disproportionate levels.

The Justice Department said the FBI recorded 11,679 hate-crime incidents overall in 2024, while the ADL said FBI data showed 1,938 single-bias anti-Jewish hate-crime incidents that year, the highest total the bureau has recorded since it began collecting the data in 1991. Anti-Jewish incidents made up nearly 70% of religion-based hate crimes, the ADL said.

Cohen’s approach is not new.

The Los Angeles Times profiled him in 2019, shortly after the deadly attack at Chabad of Poway, when he brought an AR-15 to an active-shooter seminar at a Chabad synagogue in Los Angeles.

“Who thinks, by show of hands, that we should be carrying more guns in shul?” he asked the crowd, according to the paper.

But demand appears to have accelerated.

Cohen told Ynet that more than 40 synagogues had contacted him for security consultations since the latest escalation with Iran. He said the stigma around Jewish gun ownership has faded as more people apply for permits and seek training.

Cohen frames armed self-defense as compatible with Jewish law. “The commandment ‘Thou shalt not murder’ prohibits murder, not self-defense,” he said. “Shooting in order to save lives is permitted and even required according to Judaism.”

Recent attacks have reinforced the sense of vulnerability. In March, a man rammed a pickup truck into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, in what the FBI later described as a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism.

The attacker, who was armed and had filled the truck with gasoline and fireworks, intended to kill as many Jews as possible, according to the FBI; no children or staff members were killed.

In Teaneck, New Jersey, authorities charged a teenager in March after a Jewish pedestrian was shot with gel pellets from a passing vehicle after being asked whether he supported “Israel or Palestine,” according to the Combat Antisemitism Movement.

The spread of armed security has also raised concerns among Jewish leaders and security professionals.

The Secure Community Network, a major North American Jewish security organization, warned last year that firearms in synagogues should be permitted only as part of a formal program, with clear leadership, training, policies, legal review and coordination with law enforcement.

“Allowing individuals to carry weapons without coordination, policy, or oversight poses grave risks — to safety, to legal liability, and to communal trust,” the SCN report said. “Individual carry in an unstructured context is not a viable or responsible option.”

Cohen has made a similar distinction between armed individuals and organized security teams. “There is a difference between a guy with a handgun and a trained team that knows how to move and operate together,” he told Ynet.