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...