Krav Maga History
The Krav Maga fighting system was developed by Imrich Lichtenfeld (born 1910) in the 1930s. He taught it first in Bratislava when the Jewish community was under attack from the Nazis and local fascist gangs.
As someone who had trained in boxing and wrestling, he saw that traditional fighting styles were largely ineffective in real life combat situations and put together his system of reality based fighting.
There was no place for the traditions of martial arts, nor for the rules of sport based fighting – the only thing that mattered was stopping your attacker as quickly and simply as possible while minimizing any injury to ones self.
When the State of Israel was established in 1948, Lichtenfeld was appointed as Chief Instructor of Physical Fitness and Krav Maga for the the Israel Defence Forces. This was the point where the close contact fighting system became known as Krav Maga, and it has been developed and refined over the following decades to become what is taught today.
The fighting system is used world wide not only by the military, law & order and security personnel but also by a growing number of civilians who are looking for an effective, realistic way to defend themselves against violent attack.
Lichtenfeld, founder of Krav Maga, passed away in Israel in 1998 at the age of 87.