Dr. Dorian Paskowitz was a Jewish physician and an unconventional guy from the United States who raised his large family in a trailer and who brought surfing to the Middle East.
The unconventional American Jewish physician and surfer Dorian Doc Paskowitz died earlier this month on November 10 at an old age. He started a surfing Odyssey with his family, a wife and camper full of kids, and came to Israel in 1956 bringing with him the first surfboard which he showed to locals on the Frishman Beach in Tel Aviv.
Circle of Peace in Tel Aviv. Sending doc off in the traditional surfer way.
By 1957, with a failing marriage, he’d moved to Israel to live on a kibbutz. He started teaching lifeguards how to surf.
Years later, he came back to Israel with a message of peace, showing how surf can unite people, even Israelis and Palestinians.
He formed Surfers for Peace with Kelly Slater in 2007, and some years later I met surfer Grant Shilling in Tel Aviv carrying this torch of giving Gazans boards for surfing.
Raskovin and many other Israelis are longing to make a bridge of peace in the Middle East –– whether it’s done with a longboard or a short one.
Raskovin plans on meeting with Lebanese surfers in Marseille, France. “Our bigger project is the Med Surf Cup to collect people from all over the Mediterranean –– a network of surfers in constant dialogue.”
Today Doc’s mission rings true in Israel where surfers like Arthur Rashkovan run surfing coexistence programs in the Mediterranean. This past Friday Israeli surfers came together to build a surfer’s ring at sea to pay tribute to their beloved Doc who was known to have said:
“First I’m a surfer, then a Jew, then a doctor.
Lower photo via @pitchon
Author: Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience. With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change. She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it. Reach out directly to [email protected]
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