Krav maga is a brutal hybrid form of martial arts hand-to-hand combat that was founded by Imi Lichtenfeld (1910-1998). It is based on Imi Lichtenfeld’s street fighting, boxing and wrestling skills that he used to defend the Jewish quarter in the city of Bratislava (the modern capital of Slovakia) against fascist groups in the mid- to late-1930s.
After fleeing Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, Imi Lichtenfeld arrived in Israel in 1942 and immediately began teaching close-quarters combat to Israel’s first fighting units. After Israel’s independence in 1948, Imi Lichtenfeld became the chief instructor of physical training for the Israel Defense Forces, and his fighting style was named krav maga, which means “contact combat” in Hebrew.