IT'S A SHTICK UP!
Rabbi designs jacket meant to conceal guns at synagogue
This rabbi is really proud of his new “piece” of clothing.
Rabbi Raziel Cohen of Morris County, NJ, has designed a $550 “kapota” — the long jacket donned by married Hasidic men on Shabbat and holidays — meant to comfortably conceal a gun.
After he got married about two years ago and graduated to wearing a kapota, “I realized right away it was a problem,” said Cohen, 24, of the cumbersome garment, which is traditionally fashioned with buttons and a belt known as a gartel.
The issue: He couldn’t easily pull out the Glock 19 or Glock 17 he always packs during synagogue.
“When you draw a gun, you have to do it safely, quickly and efficiently — ensuring that it’s not a risk to the person drawing the gun or to those around him,” said Cohen, an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
So he designed a “tactical kapota” with quick-access snaps hidden under a decoy version of the buttons traditionally required for the jacket.
“The buttons are definitely too time-consuming to undo,” he said, adding that “efficiency” is essential. “The snaps are safer. With this design, you’re able to expose the gun through those layers of material faster.”
Miami-based manufacturer Shaul Snovsky produces and sells the “luxury” kapotas. “People are calling me all the time for the product,” he said. “I’m not trying to sell anybody fear. You don’t want to be sheep going to the slaughter.” That’s a sentiment that’s spread across the Jewish community after a Boston rabbi was stabbed multiple times outside a Jewish day school in July and a teenage student was fatally shot outside his yeshiva in Denver in August. “The danger increased. I’d like to be safe and be in control — I don’t want to be a victim,” said Aaron, a 20-something Hasidic New Yorker who asked The Post to withhold his last name for safety reasons. “It comes down to a matter of seconds. That’s not enough time to call for help or rely on someone else.
“This kapota allows me to not waste time,” added the married father of young children, who said has a concealed-carry permit.
Cohen, who does chaplain work in prisons, is also known as the “tactical rabbi,” as he is a firearms instructor and founder of National Defensive Firearms Academy. He regularly posts videos to educate people on protecting themselves and gun safety. Indeed, it’s not uncommon to see him outfitted in tactical fatigues and a monogrammed bulletproof vest one day and his traditional black hat and religious attire the next.
“People who think anyone who carries a firearm is a vigilante, that we’re looking for confrontation,” said Cohen, noting that drawing an actual firearm should be the last resort after exhausting every other layer of protection. “It’s not true. People are getting killed in synagogues and houses of worship — the places where we never want to be the most vulnerable, but are the most vulnerable. I don’t want to have a firearm in synagogue, but that’s a perfect world we don’t live in. It’s sad.”
Cohen, who holds a concealedcarry permit in a handful of states, also holds a permit to own and purchase firearms and ammunition with a license in New Jersey. (There are firearms that are legally able to be stored in the synagogue, which the rabbi has access to.)
Given the recent rash of Jewish hate crimes around the country, including a spike this past spring stemming from unrest in Israel, tensions are high.
“Anyone who said they weren’t scared is lying,” said Cohen. “I’m not scared only because I’m prepared. We’re not trying to take over the role of law enforcement. We’re just trying to make sure that until we get there, we’re able to protect ourselves.”