Yehoshua Sofer

Yehoshua Sofer (Hebrew: יהושע סופר‎) is an Israeli hip hop and rap artist, and a martial artist.

Yehoshua Sofer is also the name of a victim of the June 2010 West Bank shooting.
Sofer in 2011

Biography

He was born in 1958 in Jamaica and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1963 where he studied Tang Soo Do, receiving a black belt by 1968, aged ten. He studied Kuk Sool Won from 1974, advancing to 6th dan, and worked as a trainer and bodyguard during the 1970s and 1980s.

Singing career

In the 1990s, he was a hip hop singer and rapper under the name "Nigel Addmore" and was an MC on the album Humus Metamtem in 1993.[1][2] The album, featuring the hit song, "Hummus makes you stupid," was wildly popular in Israeli dance clubs.[3][4]

He appeared in the documentary films Awake Zion in 2005,[4] and Hummus the Movie in 2016 [5]

Martial arts career

In 2000, he ran a Kuk Sool Won school at the International Convention, Jerusalem.[6]

In 2002, he founded the Abir Warrior Arts Association of Israel, teaching his own style of "Abir-Qesheth Hebrew Warrior Arts" (אבי״ר-קשת אומנות לחימה עברית‎) in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, claiming it to be a tradition of his family dating to Israelite antiquity[7] preserved by an underground school of "Bani Abir" in Habban, Yemen, and styling himself Aluf Abir אלוף אבי״ר‎ "Grandmaster of Abir". Sofer perceives this style of martial arts training to be a continuation of the practices of the Jewish people prior to the Second Temple period.[8]

The word אביר‎ abir in Modern Hebrew means "knight". The style takes inspiration from the Hebrew alphabet, basing moves and stances on Hebrew letters.[9]

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See also
  • Krav Maga, a 20th-century origin Israeli martial art conceived by Imi Sde-Or in the 1940s

References
  1. Leibovitz, Liel (12 November 2012). "Fat Man Saves Israeli Hip-Hop". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  2. Goldsmith, Melissa U.D.; Fonseca, Anthony J., eds. (2018). Hip Hop around the World: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 353. ISBN 978-0313357596.
  3. Siwek, Daniel (March 2005). "Zion Riddims". Tikkun. 2 (2): 75. ProQuest 212205595.
  4. Fox, Michael (6 May 2005). "Rastafarians and Jews rock steady in 'Awake Zion'". J. The Jewish News of Northern California. ProQuest 367643580.
  5. Spiro, Amy (14 August 2016). "The silver screen on a silver platter". Jerusalem Post. ProQuest 1814463003.
  6. Schechter, Erik (24 April 2000). "The Flying Breslav Chasid". Jerusalem Report. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  7. Sofer, Yehoshua; et al. "The History of Abir". Abir Hebrew Warrior Arts. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  8. Hakak, Yohai (2012). Young Men in Israeli Haredi Yeshiva Education: The Scholars' Enclave in Unrest. BRILL. p. 123. ISBN 978-9004234697.
  9. Kamisher, Eliyahu (17 August 2015). "Self-defense, King David-style?". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
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