Lehava Summer Camp
Lehava Summer CampLehava

Today, the anti-assimilation organization Lehava finished its fifth summer camp session this summer. Each session featured two parallel tracks, one for men and one for women.

The camps took place in the hills of Judea and Samaria, "for the purposes of imbuing youth with Jewish pride and Krav Maga [Israeli martial art] skills," according to the camp organizers.

The camps featured lessons on the subjects of the war on assimilation and missionaries, taught by former Yachad party candidate Baruch Marzel and the Head of Lehava, Benzi Gopstein. Campers learned methods of persuasion and body language; in addition, seminars were given by attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir and Noam Federman which outlined the rights included in freedom of speech.

According to camp organizers, "This past month, five sessions were held, each one including about 20 youth, whose goal was to educate about the Land of Israel and the Homeland." One of the campers said about the camp that "here, you acquire the values of love of Israel and war against assimilation."

Benzi Gopstein, Head of Lehava, explained that "the goal of the camp is to raise youth with Jewish pride who will know how to defend themselves and their brothers. I'm happy that there are youth who, instead of spending time in front of the computer, come to study about the love of Israel."

In reaction to a headline in Yediot Achronot this morning which accused the camp of incitement and training youth to fight against security forces, Gopstein said, "the headline incites against a camp which is intended for love of Israel, defending the daughters of Israel, and education for IDF service - we never advocated fighting against security forces and we love the IDF, but we are against violent interrogations by the Shabak [Israeli Security Agency]."

Attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir, active in protecting the rights of Jews who defend themselves against Arab nationalistic attacks, said about the camps: "The Lehava organization needs to win the Israel Prize. The State of Israel is investing millions outside of Israel to prevent assimilation while, in Israel, we have the Lehava organizations which acts with complete devotion - we need to give Benzi Gopstein the Israel Prize for the great project he has founded.