{"id":599585,"date":"2026-08-29T11:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T11:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/599585\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T11:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T11:14:09","slug":"iranian-missiles-become-art-in-israeli-blacksmiths-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/599585\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian missiles become art in Israeli blacksmith’s studio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yaron Bob is getting ready to receive a new shipment of seven Iranian ballistic missiles<\/a>, which were fired at Israel in March. The internationally known Israeli blacksmith transforms the Iranian rockets in his blacksmith studio into works of art and Judaica, which have reached as far as the White House.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my playground,\u201d says Bob of the Qassam rockets, Grad missiles, and Iranian ballistic missiles that fill the backyard outside of his blacksmith studio.<\/p>\n

Bob lives in Moshav Yated, about 4 km from the Egyptian and Gaza<\/a> borders, where he raised his children in the open fields and relative quiet that initially drew his family there from central Israel over 25 years ago. Back then, he worked as a computer teacher at the local high school. But a Qassam rocket attack from Gaza changed Bob\u2019s career trajectory nearly 18 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt directly hit our high school. Although the students were able to get to the protected area of the school, I wasn\u2019t able to get to shelter on time. The rocket blasted the ceiling. I was lucky that I didn\u2019t sustain physical injuries. But debris and dust covered me completely. When I returned home, I couldn\u2019t stop shaking,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

When the PTSD<\/a> symptoms and physical tremors from the rocket attack didn\u2019t stop, Bob understood that he had to do something. \u201cI was telling everyone I was fine, but something had changed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"SIGNATURESIGNATURE ROCKET ROSES rise from a map of Israel. (credit: Anav Silverman-Peretz)Blacksmithing becomes way to move beyond reliving trauma<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty years ago, there wasn\u2019t a lot of awareness or conversation about PTSD symptoms or resilience. But I understood then that I had to find something to do to ease my mind and stop reliving that rocket attack,\u201d Bob explained.<\/p>\n

His initial foray into blacksmithing started after another Qassam rocket<\/a> was fired at his agricultural community soon after the rocket attack on the high school. A security guard gave him some remnants of the rocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in blacksmithing and working with metal. Even as a kid, I liked to make things from metal and read a lot about the world of blacksmithing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the rocket attack, I started off using a pair of pliers to reshape metal forks into different animals. This helped calm me. I had this space for a workshop to craft but didn\u2019t have all the necessary blacksmithing tools. So I built up the tools I needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I created my first rose out of rocket metal, I experienced a truly great feeling,\u201d Bob shared. \u201cIt was as if something magical happened, like this energy cleaned away all my fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cConfronting my fear and turning a piece of metal that brought destruction into something beautiful was transformative for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the creation of his first \u201crocket rose,\u201d the mayor of Sderot at the time, David Buskila, encouraged him to create more. He also suggested that Bob add the map of Israel at the base of the rose, and place it at the location of Sderot, which had suffered from rocket attacks for many years. The rose sculpture became Bob\u2019s signature piece, which Buskila would gift to dignitaries visiting Sderot.<\/p>\n

When he was younger, Bob enjoyed trying to create metal objects described in books that he loved. Metal objects like swords and medieval armor fascinated him. However, instead of pursuing blacksmithing, he began a career in computers as a young adult.<\/p>\n

Today, Bob, 54, works in his blacksmith studio full-time and sells his creations through his online shop, while occasionally lecturing and touring around the world. He also volunteers and teaches fork-art sculpting to youngsters who are hospitalized, both in Israel and around the world.<\/p>\n

His studio brims with a singular set of sculptures and creations, which also include musical instruments crafted from rockets, which he calls Sounds of Peace. They are inspired by King David\u2019s lyre; when struck, they play different musical themes from the Harry Potter movies, as well as Pirates of the Caribbean, Israel\u2019s national anthem, \u201cHatikva,\u201d and even America\u2019s anthem, \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob does not collect the rockets or Iron Dome interceptors himself. \u201cI can\u2019t pick up the rockets; it\u2019s too dangerous for average citizens to do. The army and security personnel must first carry out security checks to make sure that no explosive materials are left in the rockets,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

Once the missile pieces are cleared, the raw material is then passed on to Bob, who uses an anvil, blowtorch, as well as a furnace to reshape the materials into menorahs, Shabbat candles, mezuzahs, roses, jewelry, and other artistic items that he sells to customers in Israel and around the world. Proceeds from the profits are donated to victims of terror and to constructing bomb shelters.<\/p>\n

His enterprise, Rockets into Roses, has received official letters of appreciation for his sculptures from ambassadors, envoys, and US officials, which hang in his blacksmith workshop. Some of the recipients of his rocket metal craftsmanship include former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, Tony Blair, Hillary Clinton, and Nikki Haley.<\/p>\n

In 2025, during a visit to the White House, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gifted US President Donald Trump with a B-2 bomber-shaped mezuzah that Bob had created from a piece of an Iranian missile that had been fired into Israel.<\/p>\n

In 2014, he was also commissioned to create a menorah from rocket shrapnel, which was presented to then-president Barack Obama. And in 2019, Trump, vice president Mike Pence, and the Cabinet gathered together for the annual Hanukkah reception at the White House, where a menorah that Bob created was lit.<\/p>\n

While Bob has been forging for nearly two decades, the blacksmith had to stop work for several months following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel. Bob and the rest of the Yated community were evacuated for eight months to Eilat and other areas in southern Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of the darkest times in my life,\u201d Bob said. \u201cHamas terrorists murdered two residents of Yated that day. I personally lost 40 friends from this region during the Hamas massacre.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were displaced and put in a hotel in Eilat following Oct. 7, I stopped working for six months. It was chaos,\u201d remembers Bob. For years, he has been residing part of the week in Beersheba with his partner, who refuses to live in the moshav following the brutal Hamas attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly, I got this phone call: Yaron, we need you to create something for someone very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, he felt that he couldn\u2019t possibly follow up on the commission. \u201cMy head was somewhere else. I was so confused and wasn\u2019t in a place [emotionally] to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in the end, Bob created the requested commission, and Elon Musk received Bob\u2019s sculpture that was made from remnants of a rocket. It is inscribed with the words \u201cNever Again,\u201d and was presented to the renowned businessman during his January 2024 visit to Auschwitz, coordinated in collaboration with the European Jewish Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel blessed that my rocket creations have reached important figures in the international community. It\u2019s a great honor. But at the end of the day, I return home to my work,\u201d he said while handling a metal rose that he has just finished completing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that it\u2019s my destiny to share our story \u2013 the story of Israel \u2013 with anyone willing to listen,\u201d Bob concluded.<\/p>\n

The writer lives with her family in Midreshet Ben-Gurion in Ramat Hanegev, where she works as an English teacher and writes in her free time. She made aliyah from Calais, Maine, in 2004.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yaron Bob is getting ready to receive a new shipment of seven Iranian ballistic missiles, which were fired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[787,3257,85,46,120535,1619,43,1464],"class_list":["post-599585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-art","tag-artist","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israeli-art","tag-magazine","tag-news","tag-rockets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}