Jerusalem – An 86-year-old Jewish surfing guru from Hawaii is bringing good vibrations to the impoverished Gaza Strip.
Dorian Paskowitz, a retired doctor who has been surfing for 75 years, donated 12 surfboards to Gaza’s small surfing community on Tuesday in a novel gesture to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
“God will surf with the devil if the waves are good,” he said. “When a surfer sees another surfer with a board, he can’t help but say something that brings them together.”
Tanned and shirtless, Paskowitz emerged grinning at the Israel-Gaza border crossing after handing over the dozen boards to Palestinian surfers waiting on the other side.
He said he was inspired after reading a story about two Gaza surfers who could not enjoy the wild waves off the coastal strip because they had only one board to share between them.
“So I said to my son, ‘Come, we’ll go to Israel and get them some boards,”‘ Paskowitz told AP Television News. He described his mission as a “mitzvah,” Hebrew for a “good deed.”
Arthur Rashkovan, a 28-year-old surfer from Tel Aviv, said Paskowitz’s project was part of a larger effort called “Surfing for Peace,” aimed at bringing Middle Eastern surfers closer together.
