Eli Leffer

Eli Leffler was born in Israel in 1961.
At age 5 he began training in Judo and “Survival” with Dennis Hannover (one of the leading martial arts instructors in Israel, a member of the Black Belt magazine “Hall of Fame” and the founder of the well known Israeli system of self defence “Hirsadut” / “Dennis Survival”).
In 1979 he joined the Israeli Army and served as an officer in the Special Forces. During his service he also trained IDF Special Forces in “CQB” and “CQC”.

After 5 years in the army he retired and traveled to Europe, where he began working in the security division of the Israeli Airline “El-Al”. During this time he also completed his training for his black belt in Judo and trained in Muay Thai in Holland. In addition to his work for “El-Al”, he was also involved in a variety of security oriented projects such as V.I.P. protection and big events security.

In 1986 he returned to Israel and began teaching former Special Forces personnel. He was also awarded his black belt in “Dennis Survival”.

In 1988 he received an invitation to teach self defense in South Africa at Chris Thompson’s Karate Center (Chris Thompson is an 8th Dan and the head of Shukokai Karate in South Africa).

In his school in Cape Town Eli also instructed members of the famous South African special forces unit the “Recces” ( “Reconaissance Commandos”) and security officers of the company “Fidelity Guards”, as well as giving security consultations to various private companies.

At the end of 1990 he returned to Israel and founded “Hashita” training centers. Between 1990 and 1998 he expanded the “hasita” centers and developed a special system for teaching self defense to disabled and wheelchair-bound individuals.

In 1998, at age 37, he returned to government security work and was in charge of security at Israeli facilities in Russia and England.

On returning to Israel in 2002, he focused on not only teaching children, but also on passing on his by now vast experience in the field of security work to others in that field, including not just different ways of fighting with and without weapons, but also security theories and operational methodologies. In the last few years he has often traveled out of Israel so as to pass on this knowledge to interested groups in a seminar format. Whilst these areas of knowledge and the teaching to groups as different as children, the disabled and elite personal protection specialists may at first glance seem very different and diverse, the core concepts of the “Hashita” method and philosophy are equally applicable to all of these areas.