Krav Maga really began in the streets of a modern city, not on the ancient battlefields of Asia or in the sports ring. Imi Lichtenfeld, also known as Imrich Sde-Or, devised Krav Maga, beginning in the 1930s. (Lichtenfeld is German for "light field." Sde-Or means "light field"in Hebrew.)

Imi was born in Bratislava, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but now the capital of the Slovak Republic, in 1910. His father, Samuel, was a police officer renown for personally apprehending and bringing in the most violent criminals in the region. Imi spent a great deal of his youth as a gymnast, boxer and Greco-Roman wrestler, a very tough sport indeed.

As the fascist movements of the early 20th century began to affect Jewish interests in Bratislava, Imi and other skilled athletes and fighters were hired to provide protection for Jewish shops, buildings, synagogues and people. Violence became a daily event. At one point, according to Imi, he and others were protecting a synagogue against a riotous crowd of fascist bullies. Fighting broke out. The defenders were outnumbered so badly that one punch per bully had to be effective because there was no time for two punches! This was the genesis of Krav Maga.

Eventually, Imi became a marked man. In 1940, the Jewish leaders of Bratislava urged him to leave the city until it became safer - which it never did for him. Imi went down the Danube River to the Adriatic Sea and rowed across the Mediterranean to Alexandria, Egypt.

By the later '40s, Imi was in the British Mandate protectorate of Palestine. Indigenous Jews, who had lived in the region for 3000 years, and Jews arriving from around the world, particularly Europe, were in peril from both Arab communities and from British authorities. Paramilitary groups were formed, the most famous being the Hagganah, led by Yitzhak Rabin, and the more violent Irgun, led by Menacham Begin, both of whom became Israeli Prime Ministers. Imi was part of the Hagganah.

Imi, naturally, taught his comrades what he knew about fighting and self-defense. After the formation of the State of Israel, and the founding of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Imi was appointed Chief Instructor for physical fitness and hand-to-hand fighting, or Krav Maga. This once secret system was developed and revised over the course of a 20-year military career, being taught to military and other security forces. In that time, Krav Maga was used and refined on the battlefield and in the streets of Israel.

After retiring from the IDF, Imi and several top students developed Krav Maga for civilian and police use. They taught throughout Israel and in 1978 created the nonprofit Krav Maga Association in Israel. Training continued to develop and spread within Israel.

In 1978, an international Instructor's Training seminar was conducted. One of the few passing students, an American named Darren Levin, brought Krav Maga to the US in Los Angeles. In 1983, at Imi's personal request, Darren created the Krav Maga Association of America, Inc. The Association outgrew its original training facility and now operates the National Training Center in Los Angeles. Imi awarded his own black belt to Darren, a great honor in the martial arts world. Imi recognized Darren as the leader of Krav Maga in the US. In 1998, Imi Lichtenfeld died at the age of 88. His legacy is still alive in the thousands of men, women and children who have trained in Krav Maga throughout the world. That we can live out Imi's personal credo, "That one may walk in peace," is the heritage to which we all gratefully become heir.

Imi Lichtenfeld

1910 - 1998