#abir qesheth

[is-the-thing-actually-jewish]

Abir Qesheth (I saw it in a documentary, which is a major 🚩🚩 tbh)

Rating: Jew-ish but we recommend staying away

None of us had heard of this before this ask, but having looked into it a bit… The dude who is promoting Abir Qesheth is genuinely Jewish, but his claim that it is a secret Jewish martial art form dating back to the biblical days is extraordinarily dubious. There is no evidence that any such practice existed, and it is contradicted by elements of his own backstory that he’s expressed previously (see slate article). To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with creating a Jewish martial art style (see: Krav Maga), but pretending that it’s an ancient tradition you’re passing on is, at best, a scam, and at worst… well, cult leader behavior. 

Indeed, Abir Qesheth set off a number of cult alarms for us. Some major cult warning signs include:

charismatic leader claims unique unmatchable Authenticity

demands ideological and/or physical purity from his followers

zero tolerance for questioning the narrative

promoting a strong us vs. them philosophy

emphasis on very narrow definitions of masculinity and femininity

… all of which are present here. 

Furthermore, while Abir Qesheth is not Messianic in the common usage of the term (i.e., Christians cosplaying as Jews as a concerted effort to trick Jews into accepting Jesus as the Messiah), given that this guy is claiming

a) a unique connection with the Divine, b) i) that this secret martial art form goes back to King David and is

ii) passed down patrilineally which would make him

iii) a direct descendant of King David and therefore

iv) in the messianic line

c) promising to revitalize Judaism to be stronger with

d) a cadre of young men who hang on his every word plus

e) his whole mock-biblical aesthetic lead me to conclude

f) this is, in fact, a messianic cult, and he’s setting himself up as messiah. 

In short: This guy may be Jewish, but he’s bad news.