On Novermber 3, 2015, Oral Roberts University’s Emet for Israel supported group, United for Israel, hosted a Krav Maga event, which was one of the most popular events on campus, attracting more than 70 people.
The purpose of the Krav Maga event was to introduce the Israeli martial art, Krav Maga, to the ORU community. The group says that the event was able to effectively encourage deeper exploration of Israeli culture, and that by allowing students to participate in a traditional Israeli self-defense tutorial, the students were better able to understand a different aspect of Israel. Through the Krav Maga event, the ORU student body saw that Israeli culture has many unique aspects, including the way they defend them selves and methods of exercise and recreation. By bringing a Krav Maga instructor to our campus, they were also able to exercise with a new technique.
The target populations of the event included the ORU student body, especially those who were interested in physical fitness and martial arts. Since physical education components are inherent in ORU’s curriculum, it is important to relate that fitness component back to the culture and people of Israel. Additionally, because Krav Maga can be viewed as martial arts or self-defense, it attracted both the male and female populations on campus because the women were interested in the self-defense aspect, and the men were interested in the martial arts side of it.
The group had been planning the event since our introduction to Krav Maga at the CAMERA Conference in August. The Krav Maga event appealed to many students, profoundly impacting the campus community.
This was contributed by ORU CAMERA Intern, Connie Hammond.