What’s with the Guns?
Two new films depict religious Jews who are locked and loaded.
by Rich Robinson | September 29 2025
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
It was the best of times for the twentieth-century children of Jewish immigrants living on the Lower East Side. Careers beckoned in entertainment, in boxing, even in organized crime, and this meant leaving their dreary tenement lives for something more exciting and lucrative.
It was the worst of times for their parents. They watched their wayward children sometimes succeed in the entertainment world, or as a boxer with a memorable name (“Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom”) or, God forbid, as a gangster.
It was the best of times later in the century too, the so-called “Golden Age” of American Jewry following World War II, when barriers like university admission quotas and exclusion from establishments fell by the wayside.
It seems like it’s the worst of times again.
As I write this in 2025, it seems like it’s the worst of times again. Antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment have skyrocketed. No longer are campuses or even synagogues safe havens. Now Jews are being attacked verbally, physically, and yes, even murdered.
Perhaps not surprisingly, there has been a rise in the number of Jews who are getting firearms training and carrying concealed guns into their synagogue. One training organization is called Lox & Loaded, with chapters in 15 cities around the US.1 The practice is not without controversy 2 and represents a change from the traditionally low-gun-toting numbers of Jewish people.
That’s why I recently went to see the limited-distribution film Guns & Moses.3 It’s quite a gripping crime-suspense movie which concerns a small-town Chabad rabbi named Mo Zaltzman (living somewhere in High Desert, CA) who, after the murder of a synagogue benefactor, is challenged to acquire a gun and learn to use it for self-defense.
As the story unfolds, the rabbi’s wife and his family of five find themselves in danger, too, and some of them start packing as well. The rather unexpected ending finds the rabbi and others finding ample use for their weapons. (Christopher Lloyd makes a quite convincing appearance as a Holocaust survivor confronting a young white-supremacist kid.)
As a murder mystery, the movie is gripping and suspenseful. As a commentary on our times, it is deeply sobering. Director Salvador Litvak and his co-writer wife, Nina, introduce the film and Sal comes back at the end for a final word, including mention of the special relevance of the film in the wake of October 7. As the movie’s website states:
For better or worse, “Jews are news, “and since the massacre in Israel October 7th, antisemitism and Jewish issues are top stories in the media and the national conversation. Traditionally, American Jews tend to be political liberals who support strict gun control laws, but the past year has seen a shocking rise in antisemitic attacks. Jews who would never have purchased a firearm in the past are now getting armed and trained to protect themselves, their families and their communities.4
I am not going to advocate for or against Jews arming themselves in this piece. Every reader will have their own opinion. But let’s look at a second film for a moment. That movie is Caught Stealing, a drama-comedy whose highlights include a pair of Yiddish-speaking Hasidic gangsters who are up to their ears in illicit drugs.5 I don’t know that there are currently many Hasidic mobsters in real life, but in the film, they use their guns not for defense, but for criminal activity. Jews do not generally initiate violence, only defend against it (and yes, I’m aware of the conversations happening around Israel at the moment). These Hasidim clearly are going against the grain.
Both films are worth seeing. Caught Stealing is a well-crafted story of someone who finds himself inadvertently involved with drug lords of several kinds, and it manages to be both gripping and humorous (a certain cat makes its appearance throughout). Guns and Moses is another sort of film altogether, and is a personal, heartfelt statement about the current state of the US and its Jews. (Personal and heartfelt because of the appearances of Sal and Nina Litvak in the film.) One is escapist, the other holds a mirror to contemporary American Jewish life.
Hasidic gangsters likely don’t exist, at least not in any quantity to make newspaper headlines. On the other hand, murders of Jews have been front and center. The Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in 2018.6 The Hanukkah stabbing in Monsey, NY, at a rabbi’s home in 2019. The Poway synagogue shooting in California, also in 2019.7 The hostage situation at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, TX, in 2022. The murder of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim as they emerged from the Capital Jewish Museum in 2025.8 Abroad, the murder of three children and a rabbi at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse in 2012.9 The murder of Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old in Paris in 2017, thrown off her third-floor balcony. The murder of Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor in 2018, also in Paris, by stabbing and being set on fire.10
If you want to escape for a few hours, see Caught Shooting. It includes quite a funny scene of the two Hasidim at their mother’s home on Shabbat (Shabbos, in Yiddish), scarfing down matzah ball soup.
But if you want to connect with how the Jewish community feels at this fraught moment, see Guns and Moses. Listen to Sal and to Nina. And then—regardless of where you stand on Jews packing heat—leave with the intention to help stand with the Jewish people and against antisemitism.
For our articles on practical ways to help fight antisemitism, see:
Nine Ways to Fight Antisemitism
https://jewsforjesus.org/blog/9-ways-to-fight-antisemitism
How to Talk to Your Kids About Antisemitsm
https://jewsforjesus.org/learn/how-to-talk-to-your-kids-about-antisemitism
Jews for Jesus Mourns Death of Yaron Lischinsky, Sarah Milgrim, Calls for Unity Against Antisemitism
Endnotes
[1] Grace Gilson, “As more Jews acquire guns, a Jewish security group urges stronger regulations for synagogues,” JTA, September 9, 2025, https://www.jta.org/2025/09/09/united-states/as-more-jews-acquire-guns-a-jewish-security-group-urges-stronger-regulations-for-synagogues
[2] For instance, Rebecca Fischer, “Hate is on the rise. But guns make Jews less safe, not more secure,” JTA, September 11, 2025, https://www.jta.org/2025/09/11/ideas/hate-is-on-the-rise-but-guns-make-jews-less-safe-not-more-secure
[4] Guns and Moses Movie | About
[5] PJ Grisar, “Seeking gangsters, must speak Yiddish: Bringing the Hasidic underworld to life in ‘Caught Stealing,’” The Forward, September 3, 2025, S. Africa Pushes Labels for Settlement Products
[6] Wikipedia: Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
[7] Wikipedia: Poway synagogue shooting
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Capital_Jewish_Museum_shooting
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toulouse_and_Montauban_shootings
[10] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/27/how-the-murders-of-two-elderly-jewish-women-shook-france-antisemitism-mireille-knoll-sarah-halimi
