Over bagels and lox, Jews train for antisemitic violence: 'Bubby carries now'
LOMBARD, Ill. -- On a Tuesday morning outside Chicago, an unusual crowd of young professionals and retirees, parents and grandparents, Republicans and Democrats, gathers in a gun range conference room over bagels and lox.
All are Jews or their allies, there to schmooze -- and to shoot.
"I'm not a big gun guy. I'm actually here because I'm learning," said Daniel Schwartz, a 30-something grassroots organizer who recently purchased a 9 mm handgun.
"I don't wanna shoot anybody, OK?," quipped Marla Friedman, a 71-year-old retired psychologist, who owns a 380 pistol. "I wanna get enough stuff in place so that's the actual last thing."
Among the attendees are self-professed gun skeptics who each said they felt compelled to seek out new forms of protection amid growing threats from violent antisemitism that have evolved since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack in Israel and ensuing war with Hamas in Gaza.
"You see the writing on the wall, and you feel like the walls are closing," said Angela Barak, a 42-year-old engineering consultant and mother of two who joined the group this year. "So you just feel the need to protect yourself."
Gayle Pearlstein, a bartender turned firearms instructor, set out to help assuage the fear she saw rippling through her community by co-founding the firearms training club "Lox and Loaded."
"They were scared for themselves. They were scared for their family. Their kids were harassed. They were being followed. They were being threatened at work, because they were Jewish," Pearlstein said.
In just over one year since it was started, Lox and Loaded has grown to more than 59 chapters in 24 states, with over 1,800 members, Pearlstein said.
"Every time the door opens at a synagogue, every single person in that congregation is looking towards that door out of fear because of what might happen," said Schwartz, who joins the group about once a month.
Even so, not all Jews believe more firearms in synagogues is a realistic solution and many ban them outright.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, 2025 was the third highest year on record for antisemitic incidents in the U.S.
In March, a man drove a truck full of gas and commercial-grade fireworks into the preschool entrance of Temple Israel in Michigan in what authorities later called a Hezbollah-inspired terrorist attack.
Last year, a man opened fire killing two outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Several months later, an 82-year-old woman was killed in an attack on demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, calling for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
On the first night of Passover, in April 2025, the residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was firebombed in an antisemitic attack while his family was inside.
The vast majority of American Jews (91%) say they feel less safe since Oct 7., 2023, according to a February 2026 report from the American Jewish Committee. More than half (55%) report changing their behavior in the past year out of personal fear.
Pearlstein says that individuals learning to take up arms is a response to the unfeasible high cost of armed guards at Jewish institutions, and also the lack of solutions to combat antisemitism from legacy organizations and advocates.
"They are not stepping to the plate," she said.
"My solution is training you to be your own first responder. Weapons are just tools. And just like anything else, you have to learn how to use it," said Pearlstein. "We are not the weak. We are not defenseless. We're setting the stage for deterrence. And Bubby carries now," she added, using the Yiddish term for grandmother.
Earlier this year, she approached new National Rifle Association CEO Doug Hamlin for help expanding her franchise nationwide.
"We're getting more involved now than ever before in education and training, competitive shooting, our youth programs," said Hamlin, who agreed to provide NRA-backed trainers and shooting facilities to newly established clubs.
The partnership comes at a key moment for the NRA as it works to repair its reputation after years of plunging membership and financial mismanagement by former CEO Wayne Lapierre.
Two years ago, LaPierre resigned just before a New York jury found him liable for misspending millions of dollars for his personal benefit -- including private jet flights, family vacations and luxury goods.
LaPierre argued at the time that the New York Attorney General Letitia James brought the case against him in retaliation for his gun rights advocacy.
Jurors also found the NRA liable for mismanaging assets and misrepresenting information in its tax filings as a nonprofit charitable organization.
"Historically, our membership numbers have fluctuated," Hamlin said when asked about the state of the organization. "We have millions of active members today. The NRA is strong; the NRA's getting stronger; and those that doubt us, I think, are misguided."
"I was brought in to rebuild the trust of the members, the staff, the donors in our industry," he said. "We're getting back to basics."
The NRA, founded after the Civil War to educate marksmen and promote firearm safety, much later evolved to support broader gun ownership through political advocacy. It has become a target of groups seeking solutions to the nation's gun violence problems.
In 2018, the family of two of the 11 victims in the Tree of Life Synagogue mass shooting accused the NRA of alleged complicity, suing the group for allegedly radicalizing the shooter by "valorizing gun use and vilifying disfavored groups." The case was settled out of court.
"Individual rights are paramount in the United States of America, and the Second Amendment rights are part of that. But it's an individual responsibility, and unfortunately, you have people that are going to do crime," Hamlin said when asked to respond publicly to the allegations for the first time.
Not all opponents of antisemitism think arming is the answer.
"The NRA goes out and says, 'everybody get your guns, get your gun before they take our guns.' It just creates this, you know, a cycle of panic feeling that if I don't have a gun that I'm not protected," said Shawn Brokos, director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
Brokos, a former FBI supervisory special agent who led the crisis response at the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, urges caution to anyone eager to get a gun for self-defense.
"It's a very personal decision, but it has to be thought out so carefully," Brokos said. "It's one thing about buying a gun, having it for your personal protection, keeping it in your home, and there's another thing about having a weapon on you during [religious] services."
Research compiled by Everytown for Gun Safety, an anti-gun group, finds defensive gun use is very uncommon in the U.S. and that owning a firearm for personal safety is no more effective than other forms of self-defense, such as running away, driving away or calling police.
"If a bad guy walks in that door, how are you gonna react? Train on that first before you even think about getting a weapon," she said. "It's run, hide, and then fight. Fight is that piece that we teach that is upon necessity. You shouldn't go right to fight," Brokos said.
"There is tremendous liability -- financial liability -- that comes with not just owning a weapon but making sure it's cared for properly," she added.
On that, Brokos, the NRA, and Gayle Pearlstein agree.
"There's a risk everywhere. Everywhere you go. Unfortunately, the bad guys, the monsters, they don't let you know when they're gonna attack," said Pearlstein.
