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Uri Hofi passes

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Glenn

Glenn

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Hofi provided his knowledge and techniques to the blacksmithing community.  Several times he came to America to teach classes and invited those interested to come to his place in Israel to learn his way of doing things.  He will be missed.

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Steve Sells

Steve Sells

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Memorial from חמי סל

 

Schnior Zalman Hofi was born on August 18, 1935 in Haifa, to his parents Sima and Yaakov Hofi.

He was called after the "old man" the founder of Chabad Hassid.

His father emigrated in 1913 from the village of Zelovin in Russia. He was 13 years old and came to study at the Herzliya Gymnasium with his 17 year old brother. When the First World War broke out, the brothers could not return to their homeland and stayed in Israel.

His mother went to Israel from Galicia in 1934. His father worked as a builder and his mother was a housewife.

From Haifa the family moved to Kiryat Benjamin near Kfar Ata.

When he was 10 years old, his brother, David, was born, who died of a heart disease at the age of one. Hoi was left with only son for his parents.

In the kindergarten in Kiryat Binyamin he was nicknamed Uri as short for Shniori which was another nickname and since then the name Uri has stuck to him.

Hofi remembers that his childhood home was always open, they never locked the door, his mother said maybe he would come poor and want to eat.

In elementary school he studied in Kiryat Binyamin, and in high school he studied at the Basmat vocational school in the field of automotive mechanics, where he never worked.

As a teenager, he joined the young guard and was an apprentice in the Kfar Ata nest in the Yechiam Shilim battalion joins the seed together with the nests Kiryat Haim, Yad Eliyahu and the nest North Tel Aviv, the seed is called "Grain Steel" after Joseph Stalin, which translated into Hebrew Stalin is steel, the seed joins the Kibbutz Magan in the Western Negev.

Hofi joined the Nahal with his nuclear friends and was released after boot camp for medical reasons: short leg and an enlarged heart.

After the release he lived in Kibbutz Magan and guided the young guard in the Kiryat Haim nest.

He met Nitza at a military retrieval seminar in Givat Haviva. Following her, he came to קיבוץ עין שמר in 1957.

3 children were born to Hofi Van Nitza: Meirav, Michal and Yoash. Although he was a great man of the world, his family and children were always his top priority and their presence in his life was as important to him as his professional success.

Hofi adopted Rafi Dahan to his family and later Aya and the daughters Naomi Or and Maor.

In Ein Shemer Shubutz to work in the field and after a year was appointed to the center of the branch. In the field, as in every place he worked, he made sure to learn the field and promote it. After two years in Palcha flew for a trip to Africa, later he returned to Africa with Nitza and the girls and worked there as a farm manager.

When he returned from Africa he was called to help set up a rubber factory, later on he also managed the factory. For 17 years he worked in the rubber, miniplast and magnets factory he was among the founders of these factories. While going to study art at a college in Tel Hai in order to get to know the four basic materials: the stone, the earth, the ceramics and the iron. He began his artistic path with wood sculpture, when he made the tools himself, later working with iron took up the central part of his work.

Hofi was also a man of culture and holidays and did many things in culture all his years in the kibbutz and his voice raised in his singing at various events and especially in "Moshe Hitka Al Sela" that echoes with many here to this day.

In 1987 when he was 53 years old, he established a small group in the kibbutz, first in the front yard and then in the frame area. Later, he established the wide hands smith that to this day is in its current place which included a gallery of works and a smith school where thousands of students from Israel and abroad studied. Coffi, who came to the profession of blacksmithing at a relatively late age, discovered in it besides the pleasure of doing it also a lot of creativity, was interested in passing on to others the knowledge he acquired and developed. The special teaching method developed is still being taught all over the world.

In 1992, the beaches of a school for blacksmiths opened in Kibbutz, where thousands of students have studied since then. He also taught in the United States, Japan, Germany and the Netherlands. Many volumes in Israel and around the world work according to His Torah. In the world he is considered the father of modern blacksmithing.

Over the years Hofi was invited to teach at blacksmith conferences in the United States and Europe and even won special awards in Israel and around the world.

Hofi did not consider himself as an artist, but as a volume artist, his expertise and publicity came due to the innovative work methods he developed, and special tools he created for the volume, in order to maintain their health and make their work easier. The most famous of them is a hammer called by its name "Shore Hammer" - an ergonomic hammer that gives a healthy response to tens of thousands of hammer lifts performed a day. The hammer was sold worldwide and many made copies of it. Shoi also developed special air hammer workshops, which enable artistic forging in a fast and easy way.

Although he visited almost the whole world, and felt in certain countries as his home, he loved the kibbutz very much. According to him: The kibbutz gives freedom of speech and security, and is the most wonderful place in the world. I love that Ein Shemer is a liberal, open, open, has a lot of culture and a beautiful ornamental.

A year and a half ago, Nitza Z"L died, at the same time, Hafi began to suffer in recent years from various health problems and was helped by the dedicated treatment of Anish and Boaz.

Yesterday Hoppy died and he was 87 years old in his death.

Dear beach, the land of Ein Shemer gathers you to it today, with sadness and pain. We will always remember you and we are commanded to continue your many actions in our kibbutz intertwined with the steel, culture and iron and of course the smith that you established and built that will continue to beat and beat in Ein Shemer.

We share our deepest condolences with Meirav, Michal, Yoash and the family, the grandchildren, granddaughters: Sahar, Shira, Amitay and Narya and Nin Kimauri and with all his friends and lovers in Israel and around the world.

May his memory be a blessing!

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Frosty

Frosty

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This is sad news indeed. I only spoke to Uri here on IfI but counted him a friend, a good one. Uri was and is a blessing in my life as a smith and person in general. 

I offer a toast. To Uri Hoffi and a life well lived! Heaven's hammers ring to a new beat.

Rest well Brother I'll see you on the flip side.

Frosty The Lucky.

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