As a kid, while Yaron Bob’s friends dreamed of being astronauts or firefighters one day, he dreamt of becoming a blacksmith. However, his life took him a different direction. He studied computers, became a sought-after lecturer at a number of academic institutions and seemingly abandoned the blacksmith fantasy.
The turnaround came in 2002, when Bob purchased a land at a bargain price in Moshav Yated, near the Gaza border. He found a job as a local high school's computer manager, using his extra time to fulfill his childhood dream by building an impromptu blacksmith shop behind his new home. An old railroad track was converted into an anvil, tools were collected from friends and family and the local doctor gave him an oxygen balloon. His initial works were modest: a curtain rack and a small entrance gate to his sister's parking spot. The makeshift workshop was roofless, causing Bob to grab his equipment and run inside every time rain fell. During one of these runs, he stepped on a fork, picked it up and placed it in his pocket. Later, he bent the metal until the fork resembled the shape of an animal. Since then, his creations collection has expanded; today, it includes snails, turtles and more.
"I went to the principal of the school where I worked and offered to teach art to kids with ADHD", Bob says. "She didn’t understand what I wanted from her but allowed me to work part-time anyway. Since then, I’ve been the only fork-bending artist in the world to volunteer in Israel and around the world in hospitals with children".
“Until that moment, I didn't know what trauma was”
The second significant turning point in Bob's life occurred several years later, when the security situation in the area was tense and Gaza-based terror organizations repeatedly fired rockets into Israel. One day, the siren (nicknamed "Red Color" in Israel) sounded while Bob was in an open area at school. With no time to run for shelter, he lied flat on the ground and the rocket landed just a few meters away from him. "Everything around me filled with dust", he recalls. "I lay in shock for a few seconds before getting up to try to sit and relax. Nothing helped. Until that moment, I didn't know what trauma was".
He walked around the Moshav restlessly, looking for a way to relieve the tension that had built up inside him. Eventually, he reached his forge and there, on his desktop, he spotted a Qassam rocket which the Moshav's security team had gifted to him days earlier. Staring at the tool of destruction, an idea popped into his head. "I looked at it and felt like it was satanically smiling at me ", he says. “I decided to destroy it – cut it into rings and bend it – like I did with the forks. I wanted to transform this dangerous thing into something safe ".
Bob thought of his beautiful and calm childhood home, where a rose bush had grown under his mother's window. Within a moment, he knew what his next creation would be. He created a metal stalk and attached two leaves which curved upwards to it so that together, the shape of the stalk and leaves resembled the holy land. When he finished, Bob was flooded with a burst of energy. The horror and anxiety had dissipated. And that was just the beginning. Since then, everyone in the Moshav has known that if a rocket falls, it will end up in the blacksmith’s shop.
"Even the White House has my flowers"
Bob's phone doesn't stop ringing. A Rabbi from Florida calls to order an urgent hanukkiah for the holiday; immediately afterwards, a European tour group requests to visit his workshop. He answers everyone politely, checks his calendar and records every request. When the phone call wave ends, he clarifies what's behind the work and the flowers.
"Salam Fayyad (former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority) got a rose from me", he says. "It's weird – they want their people to live in agony and anxiety and they incentivize them to shoot these missiles at us. My dream is that peace will come and I’ll be able to do other things. I have ideas for sculptures and works, but the rockets never stop. The Guatemalan Ambassador ordered a statue made of Qassam rockets. Nikki Haley (former United States Ambassador to the United Nations) received an anemone. Even the White House has my flowers".
Several "fresh" rockets cleared of explosives by IDF sappers lie in his shop’s yard. "There's a whole container in Ashkelon waiting for me", Bob says sadly. "Whenever 'Red Color' sirens blare, I know another shipment is on its way. It usually takes me three hours to work on a flower, but if there's a big order - the place becomes a production line and I can work on it for a whole day".
“I’m in love with the Gaza envelope”
Global demand and advertising have made Bob's artworks highly sought-after. He has created a four-meter high menorah from rockets, special mezuzot and much more. Such works can cost thousands of dollars. He is currently working on a new project geared for the Gaza envelope’s children: rocket musical instruments that help treat trauma victims.
Bob’s great success would allow him to leave the Gaza envelope for anywhere else in the Holy Land if he wanted to, but he doesn’t raise that possibility. "I'm in love with this place", he says in a burst of Zionism. "Every flower made of Qassam rockets that comes out of here never leaves Sderot, and I want the whole world to know this place. I want them to know that we’re doing our best to make the most out of a very difficult situation. When people in the world buy mezuzot from me, they strengthen the deep connection between Israel and God, who protects us. When someone buys my product, he or she becomes part of my story and part of Israel’s story. Often, when a 'Red color' siren interrupts my work, I take a break but then immediately get back to it. I won’t let them stop me from achieving my mission".
Incendiary kites flown into the Moshav from Gaza decorate the blacksmith shop’s walls, providing further evidence of a crazy reality in which civilians try to continue living normal lives. Bob doesn't miss the computer career he left behind: “I found my destiny and I’m thriving, satisfied and happy. The bad energies and trauma leave me through this process", he says. "I managed to take a vicious tool made to kill and transform it into a source of people’s happiness. But it’s also important to look after ourselves. I always tell anyone who buys one of my mezuzot that it’ll protect them from Qassam rockets but that the warranty is only valid overseas".