Although we personally lived in Israel for years, it is only now we’ve come to learn about Abir — an ancient Yemenite Jewish martial art and its grandmaster Yehoshua Sofer.
Born in Jamaica 1958, Sofer is the world’s leadngt practitioner of Abir, a self-defense and fighting technique that followers says descends directly from the ancient Hebrews a couple of thousand years ago.
Uh-huh!
In Sofer’s case, he was taught Abir by his father and expanded his martial arts repetoire during a sting studying Tae Kwan Do with Chuck Norris in the 1970s.
During the ’80s he moved to Israel, set up a Tae Kwan Do school, further practiced Abir and also became a reggae artists out of the love for the nation of his birth.
Crazy!
The Sofers — who are hard-core religious Jews — wound up in Jamaica after fleeing Palestine following the 1929 Arab massacre of Jewish residents in Hebron (now in the West Bank).
Sofer says his family originally comes from Yemen and has been in Israel for many centuries.
Today, Sofer teaches Abir in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv — and the martial art is kind of like a kabbalistic karate.
The fighting moves are comprised of an odd mix of Jewish symbols, the ancient and modern Hebrew alphabet, traditional Abir techniques and dances — yes dances! — from ancient Middle Eastern communities and warrior groups.
It’s all accented by additional symbols gleaned from Judaism’s historic 12 Tribes and then put into action much like Judo or Capoeira.
Yes, it all sounds a bit too esoteric to be true, but for proof, just have a look at the video above.