Tree of Life Flag come and take it.
Come and take it.

The first thing Mushka Lowenstein does after saying her morning prayers, adjusting her wig, and serving her three kids breakfast, is take her Glock-19 out of the safe. 

Then she puts on her uniform—a sweater and a skirt with hidden pants and belt loops sewn in where she places the holster for her gun. Then she grabs the portable case that carries her Glock and puts it under the stroller she uses to push her five-year-old to synagogue in Los Angeles.

It’s hot out, but she stays covered up as she treks La Brea, passing men in black hats and beards who avoid eye contact with her, and the other women in yoga bra tops walking their dogs this Saturday morning.

Lowenstein, 33, looks like any other Orthodox Jewish woman on Shabbat. And that’s just how she wants it. 

Her synagogue in Hancock Park is a little run-down, with linoleum floors and drop-tile ceilings, but it’s full of life, chanting, and swaying. The space is divided between men and women. Lowenstein prays with the female congregants while scanning for threats, her pistol now removed from her case and tucked into the holster under her sweater.

She’s backed up by her longtime friend Srula Chaiton, 32, who oversees a girls’ service down the hall. As Chaiton recites a silent prayer, I notice the outline of her own Glock under her jacket. 

“I carry every week in shul, on a holster on my belt,” said Chaiton.

Lowenstein and Chaiton are licensed, armed security—Orthodox Jewish sharpshooters. To most Jews, that’s like a WASP sex therapist or a short supermodel: a contradiction in terms. And the stereotype of gunless Jews has a strong basis in reality: according to a 2005 report from the American Jewish Committee, Jews have the lowest rate of gun ownership of all religious groups, with just 13 percent of Jewish households owning firearms (compared to 41 percent for non-Jews). A 2017 report on religion and gun ownership found just 10 percent of Jewish respondents own handguns. 

But women like Lowenstein and Chaiton say that’s rapidly changing. 

— Adam Popescu in A Skirt, a Wig, and a Glock-19

78 COMMENTS

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  1. Awesome. A lot of people say “Never again!” Some really mean it.

    • It’s not as awesome when you look a little closer. This woman is only carrying at synagogue. The gun is in a case under the stroller while she and her children walk the streets of LA on their way to worship. At home, it is locked in a safe.

      I’m glad she has the gun at synagogue. I wish she had it on her body at all times (even if that required a smaller firearm).

      I assume this is due to evil California gun restrictions. She probably isn’t allowed to carry in public. That’s wrong.

      I’m a little shocked by the low percentage of Jewish firearm ownership. I assume part of that comes from the fact that Jewish folks tend to live mainly in larger cities like NYC where firearm ownership is less common and more highly restricted.

      • Give her some credit. Because in Los Angeles California, she would be arrested by the red communists who run that state. Who do everything they can to prevent Jewish people, and everyone else, from carrying guns on a daily basis. I think she’s quite inventive. And she is not the only one I know of, who has talked about sewing a holster inside your clothing, in order to carry your weapon concealed.

        Yes she is using an unconventional form of carry. Because she has to because of the state she lives in, as well as the people she worships with. And I am sure that not all of her synagogue membership is comfortable around guns. And that’s okay.

        The Lord can dress a Shepherd up in a way to conceal their identity. And in the 21st century the shepherd’s staff can be substituted for a more modern weapon to protect the flock with.
        There are four legged wolves and two-legged wolves.

      • It’s not low in Israel. You can take that to the bank. Unarmed Jews amaze me. They’ve fallen far from their roots.

        • You would think after what Hitler did after he disarmed the Jews every Jew in the world that could have a gun would have one.
          They even vote for democrats most often

      • @Art out West:

        “The gun is in a case under the stroller while she and her children walk the streets of LA on their way to worship…”

        One of the issues for observant Jews to doing what is considered “work” on Shabbat (the Sabbath). Carrying things outside of the home is forbidden. Having the pistol on her belt would be considered “carrying” by some. Thus, it’s in the stroller.

        Why she doesn’t home carry, I don’t know.

      • I have never understood the Jewish phobia about guns when just a handful of Jews, armed with privately owned, hidden guns and the guns they retrieved from Wehrmacht solders they had killed, held off a German division for an extended period of time in Warsaw Poland during WWII. One would think the lesson learned from those brave Jews would be a motivating force for Jews everywhere to arm themselves. Of course, they had rabbis advising them to not make the Germans angry. Don’t make the Germans angry? They beat them, burnt their businesses, robbed them, starved them to death, worked them to death, gassed them to death, raped their women, killed little Jewish children — It stretches my mind what more the Germans could have done if they were “angry.”

        Even today, Jewish places of worship and schools are steadily attacked by nut jobs. One of the worst school shootings in the LA area was a Jewish school shot up by a crazy guy who begged the DA in Portland, OR to commit him to a mental health facility. The DA refused and the nut job went to LA and killed a bunch of Jewish kids. It isn’t just Jewish. I am not particularly religious. The last organized church service I attended was my parents’ 50th anniversary celebration in 1987. That said, I am deeply concerned about the concerted attack on western organized religions. It may be my imagination but it seems that if one is a Mohammadan, one can do no wrong, but other religions are constantly attacked by people who should know better. Islamic temples can broadcast the mullah’s call to prayer but students in public schools can’t pray quietly to themselves while on school property.

  2. One more reason why orthodox anything is on the FBI’s watch list.
    Can’t challenge faith in government or the status quo.

  3. I’m not Jewish. But, I have been the unarmed victim of a violent crime. When I got out of the hospital I promised myself it would never happen again. With the mandatory exception of government offices, and polling places, I have a weapon with me at all times. With the history of the Jewish people I have to wonder about the thought process involved in being unarmed passive victims. I suppose it’s how you choose to live, but being dependent on government and being the victim is not how I want to live. Never go looking for trouble or a fight. But be capable of dealing with trouble and finishing a fight. Being the victim might appeal to some idiots but getting injured or killed is not my idea of fun.

    • The majority of American jews are from eastern Europe. Or Russia. Communist as it were. Think feel the Bern! A vast number willingly marched into gas chambers & death camps. Not anymore for some. Israel fixed a lot of that. Bravo to this heroine!

      • “Communist as it were.”

        The commies were good at crushing the human spirit.

        It’s a literal death cult… 🙁

        • Xi’s May Day speech was essentially “work harder you worthless scum” to great, albeit at gunpoint, applause.

      • Jews did not willingly walk into gas chambers, and Warsaw ghetto uprising was instigated by people who knew they had no choice. Germans did not exactly publicize that gas chambers awaited people when the trains arrived at concentration camps; they even told people they were about to take a shower. Only through rumors did any information leak through that in fact mass murder was in progress.
        American Jewry may be of Eastern European origin, but most of the leftist American Jews are 3rd or 4th generation. Those that have arrived more recently from the Soviet Union are much more likely to be gun owners and vote Republican. Why non-religious and Reformed Jews tend to be Progressive Democrats is a mystery to me, as a conservative gun-owning and gun-carrying Jew.

    • We have to remember than some are dependent on their faith and/or church(some treat the government as an all power entity, like a god). The government has replaced the church and God for many people. As long as the government takes care of individuals’ needs, why do they need to have faith in religion or a specific church? The government takes care of them(like a kindly master), supplying food, housing, medical care, sometimes even protection from each other.
      Some of our citizens need this help from the government, but “free food for the people of Rome” should NOT be the plan.

    • I have never understood the Jewish phobia about guns when just a handful of Jews, armed with privately owned, hidden guns and the guns they retrieved from Wehrmacht solders they had killed, held off a German division for an extended period of time in Warsaw Poland during WWII. One would think the lesson learned from those brave Jews would be a motivating force for Jews everywhere to arm themselves. Of course, they had rabbis advising them to not make the Germans angry. Don’t make the Germans angry? They beat them, burnt their businesses, robbed them, starved them to death, worked them to death, gassed them to death, raped their women, killed little Jewish children — It stretches my mind what more the Germans could have done if they were “angry.”

      Even today, Jewish places of worship and schools are steadily attacked by nut jobs. One of the worst school shootings in the LA area was a Jewish school shot up by a crazy guy who begged the DA in Portland, OR to commit him to a mental health facility. The DA refused and the nut job went to LA and killed a bunch of Jewish kids. It isn’t just Jewish. I am not particularly religious. The last organized church service I attended was my parents’ 50th anniversary celebration in 1987. That said, I am deeply concerned about the concerted attack on western organized religions. It may be my imagination but it seems that if one is a Mohammadan, one can do no wrong, but other religions are constantly attacked by people who should know better. Islamic temples can broadcast the mullah’s call to prayer but students in public schools can’t pray quietly to themselves while on school property.

  4. …. finally, Debbie was right. Also, at 11:46 my broken watch will display the correct time.

        • if it’s bigoted to dislike a religion that has declared it wants me dead, i’m good. it ain’t the turks, hon. wifey is turkish jew as i’ve stated.

      • unicornbread…Find time to respond to any of my posts you think are false, misleading, wrong, etc. with paragraphs.

        giggling aq…Same goes for you…Over.

        • Oh, I agree that it’s fucking retarded for ANYONE, especially of a Jewish heritage to agree to gun control. However, just as a lie repeated often enough is perceived as a new truth, a truth repeated over and over just gets glossed over. And I’m not the only one on here that has gotten tired of reading the same screed repeated ad nauseam…sorry, but not sorry, and not worthy of a paragraph

        • Anyone who criticizes you is a bigot. Sounds like a leftist. Enough with your boring comments.

  5. I cannot understand why jewish gun ownership would be so low (13%). Are you kidding me?!?
    You would think it would be them to have a gat if anyone.
    Unarmed is no way for a jew to roll. I dont know why ownership wouldn’t be at 100%.

    • It might be much higher than 13%, if any group knows what a government can do with a list it would be the Jewish people.

    • Yeah, it is counter-intuitive. Hegel nailed it: “The only thing we learn from history, is that we don’t learn from history.” They WILL come for the Jews again. They always do.

      I’m no Jew, but I’m not digging my own grave or getting on the cattle car.

      • Maybe if the Jews stopped coming up with evil ideas like communism, critical theory, neo conservatives wars, etc…, people would stop coming after them.

    • Read the entire article. It will help you understand and alleviate some of your ignorance.

    • Some people of the faith take the “Never Again” approach.

      Others decided that being a victim gives the moral authority.

  6. She’s not concerned about needing her firearm at night? It won’t be of much use locked up in a safe when bad guys crash in to her home while she is asleep. “Safe” storage is what criminals love for their own protection.

    • She isn’t even carrying the gun when she is walking through the streets of LA with her young children in tow. That’s crazy! The gun is in the case (presumably locked) under her stroller carrying her young child. She is only carrying the firearm while at the synagogue.

      I presume that is all due to insane California gun restrictions. I’d probably want the gun more on the street than in the synagogue (I want it all the time).

      If I were her, I would have the gun on me at home, with me on the way to worship, and on me during worship (church for me and synagogue for her).

      If the Glock is too bulky to carry 100% of the time, a little LCP type gun isn’t.

    • Yeah and if she lives in the Fairfax District of LA, that district aint what it used to be. Fifty years ago we used to drive to LA to a cinema in the Fairfax District that specialized in Japanese films which no theater in San Bernardino did. It was perfectly safe to walk to the car in the parking lot then after the movie let out. Today, walk in the Fairfax District after dark? Are you kidding? Maybe as a member of a Marine infantry squad or platoon by just me and the wife? I have better sense.

  7. I only know a handful of Jews. Three of them are brothers. Between them they own a lot of firearms. A lot of those are NFA. I don’t think Nancy grew up with firearms in the home, but she sure as shit started living with them when she married my cousin. I’ll wager the rate of Jewish firearms ownership is much higher than 13% in Israel. There’s a lesson there for those that would learn.

    • “I’ll wager the rate of Jewish firearms ownership is much higher than 13% in Israel.”

      Gadsden, I thought so, too. At least they’re waking up, just like many are here:

      Israeli gun ownership is low at about 2% of the population. It compares to about 30% of the population owning a gun in the US.

      Usually citizens are allowed to hold a pistol and a limit of 50 bullets.

      But now applications for gun licences have more than doubled, according to the national security ministry, from 19,000 in 2021 to 42,236 last year – the highest annual number made.https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65110881 — 03/30/2023

      • The Jewish state of Israel is a socialist state. It was founded by socialists. In other words it was founded by people who never believed in the individual right of citizens to keep and bear arms. I have always believed there was a cognitive dissonance that exists in many Jews, when it comes to the Holocaust and individual gun ownership.

      • Israel has pretty strict gun control. They have a well trained population since most people have IDF experience, but due to government restrictions, few people own or carry firearms.

  8. Read that one yesterday, the whole thing.
    Different parts of the Jewish community have different attitudes or ideas of firearms and if a woman should be allowed to be armed. Some think the woman’s place is in the home, being a home maker and not allowed to possess a firearm. That is the man’s job.
    But others, as seen in the excerpt above, even Orthodox Jews have no problem with arming themselves or women acting in a security role.
    Good for them!
    This is what responsible, civil, people do.

  9. bought my first gun from jewish boss. had a few of those, grew up in westridge before devon became “gandi margh.” they all got their start at maxwell st. (jew town) before uic swallowed it up. hasidic/sephartic all around this area still. walking around on sabbath adorned with shtremel, tzitzit and sporting peyots, they do get targeted from misdirected aggression. they seem pretty damn passive, generally don’t engage with “others.” i hope some of them are armed.

    • Oy vey! You sure know the north side. Why can Arabs,Palestinians & Jews live in the same neighborhood and rarely kill each other? I never really knew any Jewish folks until I moved to Chicago in 1983. Even had a Jewish girlfriend & an attractive young Jewish doctor after me when I worked at a health club downtown. 405 N Wabash- where the magnificent mile begins🙄🙂

  10. Good for you, ladies.

    I’d recommend following the link to read the entire article. It’s well written, and has a lively comment section (497 comments and counting).

  11. The article claims, “Jews have the lowest rate of gun ownership of all religious groups.”
    Lower than the Amish?
    Lower than the Quakers?
    Lower than the Mennonites?
    LOL, no, I can’t imagine Jews having a lower gun ownership rate than any of the pacifist religious groups in America such as Amish, Quakers, and Mennonites, who are strict pacifists who don’t believe in using force even for self-defense.
    I also doubt there are many Buddhists with guns, but I could be wrong about Buddhists.

    • I live in Amish country. I see Amish men in the gun stores here all the time. I have even seen young Amish men bring Amish women to the gun range as well.

    • The Amish and Mennonites are rural folks. They are pacifists, but certainly have rifles and shotguns for hunting and farm pest control. Guns are for more than fighting ☺️

      • One of the days I was in the gun store they were talking about buying handguns.
        Big(smile)

    • “I also doubt there are many Buddhists with guns, but I could be wrong about Buddhists.”

      Buddhists and Muslims have been killing each other for thousands of years on the other side of planet earth. But not so much here in the west. At least for now. I used to see stories about this in the Press here in America all the time. I think the reports disappeared when the Hollywood Buddhists started to complain.

  12. @unicorn whisperer
    “And I’m not the only one on here that has gotten tired of reading the same screed repeated ad nauseam…”

    Hhhhmmm. Was unaware membership here was closed to new subscribers; subscribers who may have never known the history of gun control.

    But then, I am slow to catch up.

  13. Jewish support of gun rights is a micro-phenomenon, a tactic frequently used to allow “plausible deniability” to the actual perpetrators. Gun ban legislation, financing, and agitprop are overwhelmingly a Jewish phenomenon. The Jewish disproportion is all the more astonishing when we realize that Jews are estimated to be no more than 2% of the US population. Stereotypical hypocrisy is also evident in noting that many such loudmouth gun banners, welcome “weapons of war” in Jewish hands in Europe, Israel, and the US. Yes, the FACTS are “Antisemitic.” Deal with it. DISARMING GOYIM http://judaism.is/disarming-goyim.html

    • Not everything is a conspiracy. 😉
      There are Jewish folks on both sides of this debate.

  14. It says a lot about the reliability of Glocks that Jews seem to prefer them. Despite their Austrian origins.

    Then again Israel had no problem using Nazi Mausers to defend itself against Egypt.

    • And West Germany adopted the Uzi as its standard SMG for the Bundeswehr.

  15. reason why a lot of Jewish people are not pro gun is they believed that what happened in Germany could not happen her in the USA, they believed the great American dream would not let that hate exist here.
    and when they found out that hate can exist here they just huddled into there small areas they settled in and hoped the government will control it, stop it.
    because they believed the first amendment would protect them.
    as for them not being pro firearms, it’s because they don’t want to be seen as rocking the boat, as being out in front of a issue, any issue.

    I know as I have asked many of the old Jewish survivors, of the rabbi in NYC why our people would not stand up to the hate, why not being armed and to guarantee that we will NEVER go willingly into a box car or shower again was such a issue, and I was told……..

    it’s not worth repeating.

    because if ones life or the lives of the innocent are not worth protecting, then one has no standing when one goes to the next life.

    it’s not that I think my life is worth more then yours, it’s that you don’t have a right to take mine if I’m doing nothing wrong, and I have every right to defend myself and anyone else who is being threatened.

    I don’t fit the model of what people think when looking at me.
    then again, most can not comprehend a Harley riding, gun owning Jewish truck driver.

    screw the haters.

    • @Link – My brother! I, too, am a Jewish redneck!

      My father is a gun control supporter and just cannot grasp the issue. About 10 years ago, his home was pilfered while he and his wife were out. I asked what he would have done if the thieves had entered while he was home. He said “I’d have given them whatever they wanted because they clearly needed it.” I just lol’ed and said “Well, my family’s safety takes priority over everything and I’d never willingly allow anyone to compromise that.”

      • my father was a ww2 veteran and lost some extended family in the war.

        peace brother 👍

  16. jews are the most psychotic, racist, bigoted people and religion on the planet. They are deceivers, thieves, human traffickers and mass murderers. Look what isntreal does on a daily basis. Open borders for isntreal! End all extortion payments to isntreal!

    • typical response from a nazi.
      your image shows the swastika you antisemitic moron.
      must suck that your demented looser Hitler was part Jewish.
      just wondering, did your parents have any kids that lived ??
      because you are not one of them.

  17. “Truth” About Guns, eh? Since you refuse to allow any posting of the TRUTH exposing the HoloHoax http://judaism.is/holocaust.html , I’m going with GOD on this one:
    You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof. 45 But if I say the truth, you believe me not.
    John 8:44-45
    and
    Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel, for the Lord shall enter into judgment with the inhabitants of the land: for there is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land. 2 Cursing, and lying, and killing, and theft, and adultery have overflowed, and blood hath touched blood.
    Osee (Hosea) 4:1-2
    You will not “repair the world” with LIES. http://judaism.is/kabbalah.html

  18. I know a number of so called “Reform Jews” and none of them support “gun control.”

  19. Well, I see that some folk on this list still think that landing on the moon was a hoax and that the sun really revolves around Earth rather than vice versa. I wonder how they have gotten over the notion that the Earth is flat?

    I have know really great Jews, one, a lawyer, had a Nisei lawyer for a partner. During the time his partner was in the U.S. concentration camp he made the payment on his partner’s house and car and kept his partner’s share of the profits of their practice in a separate bank account for when he got out. OTOH, I had a Beverly Hills, Jewish lawyer for a landlord for the building where I had my business. I can honestly say I would have cheered had he been marched off to a “re-education camp.” ,I had another landlord who had a camp tattoo on his wrist. He was a great guy also.He owned commercial property all over SoCal having pulled himself up from refugee without two nickels to rub together when he landed on U.S. shores after WWII to being an impressive property owner just 40 years later.

  20. I have always been amazed at some of the American Jews who want to ban guns. Out of all Americans, Jews should be some of the strongest supporters of the Second Amendment to ensure that there will never be another Holocaust. I suspect that the ‘reform’ Jews cited in the survey were New York Jews. New York City has the highest concentration of Jews anywhere in America and are historically strong Democrat supporters. They are a very insular community that have always been protected by the freedoms afforded to them by living in America. They take it for granted. For the most part, their world ends at the Hudson river.

  21. @Jim:

    “I suspect that the ‘reform’ Jews cited in the survey were New York Jews”

    Unfortunately we’ve got them here in NH, too. I was, in effect, ejected from my synagogue because I carried in shul. Sigh.

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