From 90210 to Sderot

Shimon Bouskila, also known as Shupan, grew up in Sderot and has been a hairstylist for twenty-three years. Five years ago, a Kassam rocket landed right in front of his barbershop, breaking the glass windows and causing damage to his shop. He was the first person to see the Kassam and as soon as he laid eyes on the rocket, the idea came to him – the “Kassam hair-due”. Free of charge, anyone can get Shupan’s specialty. He said besides the time he did the hair-due for a local model, one person asked him to give him “the Kassam” for a costume in celebration of the Jewish holiday Purim (customary to dress up for this holiday). Shupan doesn’t stop with the Kassams. He can also fashion your hair into a Menorah and a Shofar, the trumpet-like biblical instrument made form a ram’s horn. Shupan also did a promotional hair-due for the German based hair product company, Wella. The Sderot hairstylist uses Israeli supermodels to show off his specialties, with Miri Boadana pictured with the ...

After the presentation with the WUJS (talked about it in prior entry), I saw some kids outside the cinema playing soccer (futbol). I've never really enjoyed the sport, you know, it's for Europeans. That withstanding, I still joined on in and played a little. I got in the action, starting kicking the ball around. Then I proposed an idea to the kids. Let's play a game. And of course the 11 year olds were like, hell ya we want to play a game. This was the game. I was the goalie. Each player (11 year old kid) got three penalty shots on me in goal. Whoever made the most - obviously - would be the winner. In 3rd grade, I was the best goalie in the Macabee League (Jewish league in L.A.) - or so I like to think. So I brought my "A" game - 110 percent baby. I shut Shaked (one of the kids) down - 0 for 3 - sorry buddy. But the other two kids, they got one goal on me. I was just being nice though. After the game, we just played with the ball for a while. Then I...

Today the Sderot Media Center did a presentation for 120 students from around the world on a trip to Israel with thel World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) - great networking opportunity if you know what I mean. We started at the police station and ended up at the Sderot Cinema to watch important videos and hear from important speakers on the situation in Sderot. We heard from Tal, one resturaunt-bar owner in the town. She retold the story of when a Qassam landed thirty feet outside of her eatery, while she and her cook were preparing the grub an hour before opening. Someone in the audience asked: "So what did you do right after the Qassam fell?" Tal responded, "Drank a cup of Whiskey - relaxed - and then opened the resturaunt on time - with the broken windows and all". Someone else asked why she opened a resturaunt-bar in Sderot. The eatery owner said people here in Sderot also have lives; they like to eat, drink, go out on dates, do things you guys do. It...

Check this article out. Mentioned by the editor of the Jewish Journal - top ten mensch in L.A! Pretty sweet honor right? Click Here: Brave + mensch = ? By Rob Eshman, Editor-in-Chief Three years ago, we were sitting around our offices dreaming up an end-of-the-year issue, inundated with examples from other magazines: The Ten Best Movies, The Ten Richest Angelenos, The Ten Most Powerful Hollywood Players, The Ten Top Restaurants, The Ten Hottest Bars and et cetera. Since these lists are both celebration and statement, we decided we wanted to promote something a little different. What if a list championed a Jewish value, not people, things or bars (not that there's anything wrong with them....)? Thus was born The Mensch List -- a roster that, humans being human, is far more difficult to crack than one tabulating power or wealth or even cool. But this year, after we made the list, I -- in the spirit of some holiday -- checked it twice. And there are four people missing. These a...

Here are pictures from the house hit by a Qassam rocket two weeks ago. All of the pictures show different Jewish Symbols, that in some miraculous way, survived the attack. Here is an excerpt of Noam Bedein's, director of the Sderot Media Center, report of the attack. When the Chabad Rabbi of Sderot, Chaim Pizen, viewed the damage on Mount Sinai Street in Sderot the day after the eight day holiday of Chanukah finished, he remarked, “The Miracles that we are seeing in Sderot have revealed themselves more clearly than the miracles we witnessed on Mount Sinai itself”...

Yesterday, I went to Cherna Rosenberg's house for lunch and stuff. Cherna, who lived in Israel from 1964-1984, returned from Canada to Israel in January 2006, to Sderot of all places. Yes, Cherna made Aliyah to a town safer than any gated community in the San Fernando Valley. Cherna's grub was phenominal - I'm still stuffed! The conversation, however, was even better. She delighted me with her candor, humor and passion. Cherna did move to Sderot so, umm, the new immigrant's got a little personality to say the least. Cherna, in her sixties, is my kind of lady- she says what's on her mind, always. Even being the crazy Zionist that she is, her second husband of thirty years comes from the Druze population in Israel. To most people, that might seem odd, but to Cherna - it was an obvious choice. The dude loved Israel and served in the IDF - a zionist at heart- perfect match. Her house, like many others in Sderot, is not protected from Qassam rockets. If you don...

Yesterday was my first day back in Sderot since the Qassam attack on Thursday. I convinced my good friend David Lawrence Abraham to come down with me; I wanted to give him a tour – my first one! As soon as we arrived into town, we headed directly to the police station. There we met these two young guys from New York (still a few years older than me), who just so happened to stop in Sderot (of all places) on their way to enjoying stuff, foreign to the western Negev, in Eilat. I gave em’ a quick run down on Qassam rockets: what the different colors mean, their impact, how many are launched – all the good stuff. We go outside, and they ask me “so where should we go in Sderot, seems like a happening town” (it went something like that, they were pretty funny), and I’m like, “Yo, I’ll take you around, got a car?” Knowing I needed to pick up my laundry and get a ride for David and I to Kibbutz Saad (where we were going for the afternoon), it was the perfect situation. Ari and Adam, the ...

The video taken on my camera of the Qassam attack has circulated all over the world the last few days. Numerous people wrote on my facebook wall, "I was just sitting around and then, wow, Benji Davis, you're on CNN". Yah, that was pretty cool. But in all honesty, it's not important that I was on CNN, as long as my message was clear - there's a big problem in Sderot needing fixing. The segment of my video of the Qassam attack was headlined on national Israeli news on Channel Two at six, eight and twelve o'clock. Here's the piece. Also, at 9: 30 of the night of the attack, Channel Two called me and asked to come in for an interview during the 7:00 morning news. So, I didn't sleep that night, and took a 5:30 cab from Jerusalem (where I was at the time) to Herzliyeh (where the studios are). Yes, the interview was all in Hebrew - the billions of dollars my parents spent on my Jewish education did go somewhere after all. Here's the link of my inte...

Link of me talking about attack right after Qassam fell- on CNN. CNN Link

While volunteering with special needs kids on Thursday, "Tzevah Adom" sounded. Because it was during a repelling activity, I was hanging from the top of a tree when the alert sounded. So the dude in charge got me down as fast as he could. Then I took the safety thing off and ran into the shelter outside (pictured below), relieved I made it in time before the boom. As soon as I entered I said, "I knew the Tzevah Adom was going to go off while I was up there", not thinking the Qassam was going to land near us. I smiled in relief, and began fixing my glasses as they appeared broken. Ten seconds later... the loudest boom of my life! I've never heard such a sound. It was crazy. How does the city endure these attacks everyday? Kids were crying, I was worried for the children, teachers were making sure their students were okay. It was total mayhem. Eighteen people were treated for shock. You can't think or speak during these crazy times. Anyway, the Q...

Below are the links to download videos taken on my camera during this mornings Qassam attack, which fell 50 feet outside the local Sderot elementary school I volunteer for. Qassam Alert During Attack After Attack

The ruling regime in Gaza, Hamas, wants to establish a "hudna" (truce) with Israel. Yet after the early "Tzevah Adom" warning this morning, I heard the boom of a Qassam rocket. Even though Hamas is not firing Qassams at Israel right now, they are facilitating the launching of Qassams by other terrorist organizations - most notably Palestinian Islamic Jihad - by giving them rockets. And more importantly, Hamas launches mortal shells at army bases and communities in the western Negev daily. How do you expect to have a ceasefire when you can't even display one day of restraint? Hamas has thousands of Qassams stored, ready to fire them at the western Negev as soon as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) invades Gaza in its defensive mission to stop the rocket fire on its civillian communities. "Hudna"? Are you kidding me! The only way to stop the daily Qassam fire is an IDF incursion into Gaza. But word on the street is (what I read in the news), IDF cas...

It's kind of nerve wrecking that it's been a few days since a rocket landed in Sderot. You terrorists better not be planning something big. I really don't like you- get a job or something (Mickie D's builds careers!). Sheesh. Or, have it your way (Burger King slogan). Oh ya - Poverty? authoritarian regime (Hamas)? no civil rights? Ah - there aren't any job opportunities in Gaza. For those older readers, remember when the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza - under Israeli rule - had the 4th largest growing economy in the world during the 1980's (Palestinian Media Watch) ? Then came the first Intifada in 1987 and you know what, bye bye growing economy. Twenty years later, the socio-economic state in the Gaza Strip has never been worse. Not even this guy (Alan Greenspan) could help you. I got some advice. Ditch the terrorism! It'll do you some good.

I walked into the kitchen this morning at 7:20 AM in my tennis garb to hear Stan say - "It rained". I go, "Water? From the sky?" The first time it's rained in centuries (probably months) in the western Negev had to be the morning I planned on getting on the tennis court again, as the expectation for it to rain rockets has yet to come to fruition. Last night, I bought tennis balls for my anticipated match with Stan- over $7 plus later (29 sheckles). They were the last can of tennis balls in all of Sderot. An hour later I saw a movie - just 5 bucks (20 sheckles). Can you believe tennis balls cost more than a movie? Love this little town - except when rockets land two blocks away from me!