Judaism’s Bruce Lee Teaches Tough Self-Defense Technique

By day he studies the Torah. At night he teaches assassination techniques.

He calls himself Moshe San, a medley of Hebrew and Japanese that means Mr. Moses.

Like his biblical namesake, he wants to lead a people enslaved by fear into a promised land, of sorts--actually, the world of ninjitsu, the 500-year-old Japanese art of assassination.

Along with the black hat of Orthodox Judaism, he wears a black belt. He’s a sort of Bruce Lee cum Judah Maccabees.

“No weapons beyond this point,” reads the sign on the door to the Ninja Institute, Moshe San’s martial arts school in Brooklyn. “If you come in peace, leave your weapons here. You will be searched.”

A visitor, armed only with pen and pad, knocks on the door to Moshe San’s office and is greeted with a terse “Come in.”

As he steps into the cramped room, a projectile whizzes past his head. The sensei , or master, has a plastic tube to his lips that he lowers, revealing a broad smile.

A decidedly lethal-looking dart is lodged in the door, prompting the visitor to ponder whether to make a run for it.

Moshe San pulls a photo album from his desk and begins leafing through the Polaroids.

“This is Pit Bull Izzy,” he says of one of his disciples. There are others: “Shawn the Yugoslavian Maniac,” “Dennis the Deadly Menace,” “The Crazy Jew from Avenue U” and “Dr. Albert the Ruthless.”

“They look timid,” Moshe San acknowledged. “We teach them to play that up . . . in order to create the big surprise.”

Moshe Kimiche stands only 5-foot-5 but weighs 180 pounds. He has a thick neck and a swagger.

Moshe San has probably spent more time in the dojo than he has in the synagogue. The 30-year-old black belt began his martial arts career at age 8, concentrating on ninjitsu for 20 years.

He didn’t become Orthodox until he was a 19-year-old soldier in the Israeli Army. He was sent to a yeshiva for religious indoctrination as part of a program to reduce the military’s desertion rate.

The experience had the reverse effect. He dropped out of the army to enroll full time in religious study and still devotes four hours a day to studying the holy texts.

Because of Orthodox Judaism’s strict prohibitions against the mingling of the sexes, Moshe San will teach women, but only on a one-on-one basis.

It is therefore anatomically accurate when he tells a group lesson: “You protect two things first--your eyes and your testicles.”

Half of the institute’s 30 students are Jewish. During workouts, young men wearing black, pajama-like ninja uniforms are constantly stooping to retrieve their yarmulkes.

“Almost all of my Jewish students were either mugged or subjected to anti-Semitism,” Moshe San said.

“A Jew always thinks it can’t happen to him. The fact that I’m a religious Jew brings me a lot of antagonism from the anti-Semitic crowd. I’ve been in quite a few fights.”

In past years, rival martial arts thugs have jumped out of the shadows to duke it out with Moshe San. He has been shot at a number of times and stabbed in the back during an altercation with some drug pushers in his neighborhood.

“When the drug dealers jumped me, I got one of them in a neck brace and threatened to kill him if they didn’t back off. They backed off.”

Moshe San’s two-hour class consists of physical drills for offensive and defensive basics and a rambling lecture on the psychology of confrontation. Humor and foreign relations are staples of his unique teaching style.

Projecting as forcefully as a Parris Island drill sergeant, Moshe San explains the two dynamics present in every fight.

“The first is: ‘Who’s the more dangerous individual?’ In other words, ‘Am I afraid of you or are you afraid of me?’

“The second is: ‘Who’s in the right?’ That gives a person tremendous fighting power. You fight better when you think you’re in the right.”

In an afterthought he conceded, however: “Some people are just animals, so these things don’t apply.”

Then Moshe San takes a volunteer and demonstrates a sidekick.

The sensei ‘s logic sometimes escapes the comprehension of the uninitiated, but his tone exudes such rationality that his students nod in agreement anyway.

Moshe San’s teacher, Steve Isaak, who runs the Shima School in Deer Park, Long Island, described his pupil as deadly.

“Moshe knows his stuff,” Isaak said. “He’s real, real dangerous.”

Being dangerous is a trait that Moshe San hopes to pass on to his students.

“I never had anyone come back to me and say ninjitsu didn’t work in a fight.

“I don’t tell my students to go out and kill people. God forbid,” Moshe San said. “But if somebody attacks them or breaks into their homes, there will be a trained assassin waiting.”