Williamstown Youth Center Hosts New Martial Arts Program

12:44PM / Friday, June 20, 2014Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Bear Martial Arts is presenting a new program housed at the Williamstown Youth Center

Adult and children’s classes start on July 1, 2014 at the WYC facility located at 66 School St.

Bear Martial Arts' dedicated instructors, James Shin and Alex Benko, deliver a values-based martial arts program centering on character building, goal setting, and leadership skills. Along with teaching techniques in self-defense, the new WYC martial arts program focuses on the importance of respect, self-esteem, and self-control. Goshin Jutsu, a self-defense oriented martial art emphasizing the interaction of the striking arts with the jujutsu arts, will be the style of instruction.

The major principles from karate, boxing, jujutsu, and wrestling are incorporated into the curriculum to help students develop a well-rounded style. The WYC is looking forward to providing their new facilities to Bear Martial Arts and to giving the community an excellent opportunity for self-development.

James Shin has been studying Martial Arts for 22 years and has trained in multiple styles with many exacting teachers of diverse disciplines (Hapkido, Tang So Do, Jiu-Jitsu, and Go Shin Jutsu). He taught youth Martial Arts in San Diego with Sensei Adam Storrs before moving to Williamstown. James has honorably served in the United States Marine Corps and participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom as a contracted instructor.

Alex Benko has practiced mixed martial arts since the age of 13 in Russia and has taught youth Karate for 2 years in the 1990s. He has also studied Budokai karate in Albany, NY and is currently a student of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu University.

More information can be found at williamstownyouthcenter.org and bearma.com.

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Discrimination Against Muslim Americans Persists 25 Years After 9/11

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
07:00AM / Saturday, September 12, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Dozens of Muslim Americans were among people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Untold numbers of Muslim Americans have suffered countless acts of discrimination in their aftermath.

"Of course, you'll find several accounts of Muslims from all over the U.S. describing how they went from the unknown kids in the school to being stereotyped or ridiculed for their Muslim names," Sidra Mahmood recalled recently. "However, many Americans forget that the victims of 9/11 were also Muslim Americans.

"I can't forget the time when a classmate broke down in sobs when 9/11 came up in our classroom at the Islamic seminary I went to in Texas, because her father's best friend who was like an uncle to her, died on 9/11."

Today, Mahmood is a chaplain at Williams College. In 2001, she was growing up in Karachi, Pakistan, when terrorists forced two passenger jets into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan and another plane into the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. A third plane, which terrorists hoped to crash into a D.C. landmark, was brought down in western Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers.

The attacks, which ultimately claimed 2,976 lives, horrified people around the world, including in Mahmood's native land.

"I remember being aghast like anyone who witnessed the fall of the Twin Towers in real time," she said. "However, even as a child, fear gripped me about the possibility of war, especially once we learned that Afghanistan, right adjacent to Pakistan, would be attacked by the U.S. My mother had told me about the 1971 war between India and Pakistan when she remembered hiding in the dark after bomb sirens would go off in Punjab after intentional blackouts.

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