ARTS AND CULTURE

Natan Levy

Athlete

Natan Levy, the world’s only Israeli fighter competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), has spent 2022 speaking out against antisemitism and urging Jews to learn martial arts to effectively defend themselves from antisemitic attacks. In an extensive podcast interview in August, Levy also talked about his work assisting Holocaust survivors, calling on the world’s governments to provide more funds, especially for those survivors living beneath the poverty line. He explained that thinking about what Holocaust survivors had to endure during World War II put his own career into perspective, so that before stepping into the cage, he told himself, “fight as if you had an opportunity to fight for them.” Additionally, he encouraged Jewish listeners to be “proud of who you are. Never be ashamed of who and what you are. It’s a dangerous world out there, please learn self-defense and don’t let anybody tell you what you can and cannot do.” (Photo: Wikimedia / Creative Commons License)