Until the age of 28, Yossi Zubari lived on the cusp between life and death, mainly on the side closer to death. He was a heavy drug addict and his daily experiences from that time seemed to be taken from the corridors of hell. “There was someone we just left behind at a hotel on Yarakon Street,’ ‘he recalls, “we had gone to sleep and when I woke up I saw her foaming out of her mouth. I called an ambulance and left.”
It was fun in the first few years, but in the end, I was helpless because I was injecting in large quantities. One day I woke up from resuscitation in a hospital and I remember the nurse saying “What a beautiful boy, why does he do this to himself all the time?”
Since his childhood, Zubari moved between Tel Aviv and Rochelle. At the age of eight, he entered an orphanage in the capital city, and although he had a family, it was another scary experience. “In those days”, he says, “I had one dream: to be a criminal. I went around with a knife and imitated the gangs of the Mosrara neighbourhood after one of the Black Panthers adopted me. I was a thin and brave boy, and the gang was like hacking. Not for the political struggle, I didn’t connect at all, but I finally felt I belonged. Through them, I got to know hashish and drugs, And I started getting dressed up in nice clothes every day.
At the age of 17 a year after I started using heroin and after the police in Jerusalem threw me out of the city and sent me back to Tel Aviv I started working for someone in the Carmel Market who was a user and introduced me to hard drugs. Even now when I go to eat in the vineyard I have flashbacks. Every house reminds me of where I used to sit. One day I entered the house of a family in Neve Tzedek and when they returned they saw a drug addict in their living room and ran away from the house. Yes, that’s how I would walk into people living rooms, who could even talk to me. and why you “I was a naughty child and to look after me When I became ultra-orthodox, they put me in Talmud Torah, a ‘room’ of Ashkenazim. an only black child between 200 bricks. Every morning I was bullied by the other children. The children would stand on the fence and sing to me ‘Black Yemeni, the mind of a donkey, and of course, no one wanted to play with me. I found myself sitting alone in the sandbox, playing with myself, I ate sand to get attention. Today, you hear me speak Yiddish, but back then I was a frustrated and angry child. Revenge percentage was very hard, for the company and my parents. I knew that one day would come and I would take revenge on everyone”
“My first police case, at Gil 13:30, was for attempted murder. I was a child, badly beaten up by my own father. One day the police told my father: ”One more time you raise a hand on him, Anhan we will arrest you. But I had already moved that “one day I will kill him! One Passover eve I wanted to steal the afikomen so that he would buy me a present. A violent fight ensued, and then I stood up, stuck a knife to his throat and said “This is the last time you will touch me in life” I was arrested that night and a case was opened for attempted murder. Fortunately, the judge understood my plight and released me on parole.
The one who taught me to inject was my friend, Gerardo, who later died of AIDS. One day we found out that we only had one syringe. I asked him to inject first because I knew he was sick, but he didn’t agree. Even so, I thought twice and injected him with the same syringe. Another day I injected with a friend and had an overdose. They called an ambulance for me and at one of the traffic lights, I broke down the door and ran away to use it. I was a drug addict and a drug dealer. I didn’t see anything wrong. Only money!
“I was used to injecting near emergency rooms, to save me fast,” he says. One day I arrived at Hadassah Hospital in Tel Aviv, and I sat down near the emergency room because I knew that if I injected this dose I would need resuscitation. That’s really what happened. When I woke up I realized that I was can not take it anymore. April 24th is my first clean day. I mark it out as my birthday all year.
In 1996, when he had been clean for two years, he decided Zuberi open a business for the first time in his life: Center Private rehab, “Derach Chaim” his name, which was in Rio, “a private house with ten rooms on the street Yarakon 14. Everyone who came stayed with me for a month, then he went to further treatment by the authorities.”
In the second half of his life, Zubri, the 56-year-old has undergone a transformation. After getting clean, Yossi became a respectable businessman who was around the offices of Senior Government officials, particularly in East Asia, and also as a mediator in business that transports medical and military equipment in billions between countries. I’ve always been in the industry of trying to help others, he testifies on himself, and now it has worked out for him, even in style. In February 2022 he reopened (having closed it down for COVID) in Koh Phangan, Thailand, with a central figure on the island, a local monk -Prah Olarn, his own 12 Step Holina Rehab Thailand for the treatment of addictions, “Holina Rehab Addiction Treatment Center” has already had over 50 people pass through it [written in Sept 2022].
For example A singer from Australia, one of the rasmat, a famous English singer from years ago in The 80s, a doctor and a pilot, both Americans, painkiller addicts who can’t endanger their status and license in order to Rehab in the United States now have options at Holina Rehab Thailand”.
There were media people and celebrities in their field at Holina Rehab Thailand. But the place is not intended simply as a luxury escape for the wealthy. It is open to all those who want or need help with drugs, alcohol, gambling, overeating, codependency or other challenges in life causing obsessions and compulsions. I had someone whom the IDF has discharged with post-trauma at Holina Rehab Thailand – Itzik Saidian for example, I want to bring these types of sufferers here at my own expense. Now a personality is going to come to me, one of the best-known in the country. She went through a crisis and came to settle down”. Also the starting point in the life of Tsov- Ree was sad. He never survived. No educational institution, or perhaps the opposite, even an educational institution – from the Baalez synagogue to which he was sent as a child.
It is to cut the branch, Their relatives were also hurt. they are fed up and yet after only a year and a half, you closed. I wasn’t a businessman. But I swore that one day I would open a place without help. Most of the drug addicts in my neighbourhood in the vineyard died from drugs and I know I had a hand in it. I was full of remorse and then In 2022 when I had been clean for eight years, my mother brought me a family apartment and said, I’m just asking you not to sell it. It was the easiest to be a broker and I fell for Roni Mana, who hired me, but I didn’t find myself. In those days I was already married to my second wife.
I met her as a patient when I ran the Rehab Center on Yarakon Street. After two years together including a daughter, Hades who is 20 today, I decided to go to Sri Lanka alone. I felt that the business opportunity I was waiting for was there. Sri Lanka at that time, “Zuberi continues was a country with the power of god with soldiers on the streets. I came following an Isreal who dealt with diamonds and gemstones to sell to the diamond exchange in Israel. The one from Sri Lanka would write to me about every stone, and how much it is worth and from that, I would deduct a commission of ten per cent. This job helped me live well but not get rich. But I could send money home, fly occasionally, live in a hotel and live.
I wasn’t an active father in those years but I was always in touch. I sent money. One day I came to a parent’s meeting or a Hanukkah party and the girl said to the teacher. Meet my father. Although I don’t see him much, he is the best father in the world.
I lived in a hotel in Colombo the capital city and I remember my bed shaking. I went downstairs and asked what happened and the Tsunami and I did not know the word so I went back and I didn’t know the world. I went back up, the hotel had a huge window that looks out over the sea and I see the waves and hear the rumble in my stomach, you’re going to be a millionaire and when I asked myself how, the same voice inside me said: They have a hundred thousand house destroyed right now on the water, bring from Isreal the technology of Carville’s. Which can be built in one day. From that moment on I was obsessed with telling my friend, attorney Yair Panahsi. You must send me a disassembled house and an engineer to explain the project. Somehow they sent me a sample house, I asked the Hilton Hotel for a place in the parking lot to do the demonstration I was the tender and a demo station. I won the tender and the project won me a 500 million dollar contract.
Not really, the prime minister of Sri Lanka called me after I won: “Hey kid I’m here to decide and I’ll tell you what and how many items we’ll buy. It seems that some of the money he received from the UN went to him. But beyond the money, I became a famous man that day. The articles about the project helped me reach many more technology companies in the fields of communication, high tech, and defence. Anyone who wanted to enter the Asian East markets understood that I had connections and I could get them in easily. I became a confidant of the Prime Minister and the President of Sri Lanka. From there they called me to give advice on the Maldives because they were also affected. I became an authority on disaster management. Also in Thailand, I knew how to take a liking to the ministers, buying beautiful gifts for their wives and children, and inviting them to my lavish meals. I wasted a lot of money on it but that’s how I acquired contacts in Eastern Asia and was able to birth many more projects, in Isreal and internationally.
Because I was very charismatic. If you see me with the tie and suit you will see a bright guy, with a tie, who knows what he’s doing and his word is his word. I don’t have a drug addict written on my forehead. I remember sitting with the Minister of Finance of the Maldives and he tells me after I finish my term I want to be your partner and I pinch myself. A minister in the government says: I want to be with you. I had a big conflict between how I perceived myself and how they see me. But in reality, I realized that I am much smarter and a more successful person than I felt inside or what people thought of me in Israel. It can’t just be that you joined the insurance guild – You went without a fight.
Some people in Isreal thought it was simply his personality. On the contrary, they saw it as a certificate of honour that I was a strong person who overcame difficulties. One time it got in the way. When there was a competition between me and someone in Israel for a certain business and he threw out: You’re lucky they didn’t know your past. He tried to get dirty but they told him: We are with Yossi.
“I went down to have coffee with my friends, and I told a guy that I have a dream to stay and build a rehab center. And he said: ‘There is a monk here on the island that everyone consults with. When he said ‘monk’ I felt a squeeze in my stomach. I must meet him. In the meantime, we have to check out of this resort and as we were doing so, I see a monk standing before me. It was him. What are the chances?! I approached and introduced myself. I said I have a dream to open a spiritual center in the treatment of addictions and he answered: ‘Finally someone has arrived sane on the island, let’s talk. I answered: ‘I have a boat To Koh Samui, let’s meet in two days.’ in this meeting he said he was a businessman who worked in Switzerland and then he became a monk, and after six hours – We rested laughing and crying in the temple, he asked me to come tomorrow too. The next day we sat for another four hours with him in the temple, and continue to talk at the end we hug, and he tells me: ‘I’m already waiting five years until you reach the island. How is this resort?’ I answered: ‘One of the most beautiful in the world. and he says: “From now on this resort is yours.” this was a defining moment in the journey of Holina Rehab Thailand.
“Yes,” he laughs. “They tried to treat me as a Thai patient and every few days the Monk would bring me traditional medicines, but I believe in Israeli medicine. I collapsed into the emergency room. But when they wanted to take my blood, I realized how post-traumatic I am. We are 28 years later, and still, when the nurse approached with the needle I began to tremble. I remembered for a moment Yossi who is looking for a vein to inject”
“Last year I started feeling unwell when i was not at Holina Rehab Thailand,” he reveals, “something in the body was incorrect and feeling bad. The indicators are not good and I suffered great weaknesses in my strength. Eventually, I lost consciousness and after three weeks of debilitating health, I felt what it was like to die. I’m a person who has seen death so much in life, that this doesn’t worry me. The only thing I can think of about is how much longer I will be a father to my daughter. And even if they tell me now my end of time is close by and I feel exhausted, I will know that I got exactly where I was destined to go. I obeyed and only God will decide how much I need live”.
“Today there is a widespread addiction to food and body image matters. Girls come to me 16 that have no answer and solution in Israel, except Malkishua (treatment village for addictions AA) no father and mother want to enter there because it was registered with the Ministry of Health, and that is a stain for life. Since the coronavirus, people sold to porn and screens, and there is no center in Israel that really knows how to handle it.”
“Yes, that’s right and the next ambition is to open another center in Koh Phangan to be called ‘Holina New Life’, not for addicts, but for every person who wants to empower himself”, like a retreat centre, Holina Rehab thailand concept was born.
Zubari invested a lot of personal money into creating this dream resort as a therapeutic place. “I did get a resort,” he says, “but I had to build a special dining room, a room for groups, a gym for patients, many salas (open aired rooms) and even a Buddhist Sauna containing special spices that are cooked to a secret recipe of the monks, people breathe it, and it cleans the blood.” and then it changes the lives of patients at Holina Rehab Thailand.
In March 2020, Thailand is a miracle lived, and in the end, Holina rehab Thailand only opened Last February, in full formation. “When she came out of the rumour that a unique center will open in Koh Phangan he recalls, “I received a lot of inquiries from my people profession all over the world about Holina Rehab Thailand, who wanted to work with me. I chose the best. The customers have often come through one of the familiar professors in Israel for the treatment of addictions, and he told me: ‘If you open it, I send you all my patients to Holina Rehab Thailand’. And he really sent. At the moment there are 15 staff members in Holina Rehab Thailand, and 20 alcoholics, drugs, sex and food. “This is the only center in the world where there are no gates, but no man ever ran away from Holina Rehab Thailand. The rehab is in a beautiful resort on a peninsula with amazing sunsets every evening. The duration of treatment ranges from one to six months, and everyone configures their own continuation of treatment, leaving when they’re ready at Holina Rehab Thailand”.
“Holina Rehab Thailand starts from US$7,500 thousand dollars per month at Holina rehab thailand, for a shared room for two, with a private shower and bathrooms for each, going up to US$10,000 for solo occupancy bungalow and up to US$15,000 per room with a private plunge pool to cool down from the lovely hot weather at Holina Rehab Thailand. We’re not the most expensive rehab at all. This is about the prices in Israel as well. in Israel such a center like Holina Rehab Thailand would have cost me so much more. Bringing in a broad team of holistic therapists and addiction experts is an emerging fortune. Your own yoga and mindfulness guides, In Israel, I would have to pay them ten thousand shekels, but in Thailand, the cost of living is much reduced. And anyway they are there because they also love Koh Phangan and have come to go through their own spiritual lifestyles at Holina Rehab Thailand.”
“Yes, we have Israeli food and many other Western and Thai dishes, because the Israelis always need their hummus. At Holina Rehab we have an Israeli chef, a Vegan chef and a Thai chef for some local experience. We never really have complaints about the food, even from the Israelis. One lady from Israel saw the view from her room and told me: ‘I have a voice in my stomach that says this place belongs to me. And she says: ‘Once again you started with listening to your own voices and those of your clients at Holina Rehab Thailand- so you’re spiritual? ‘Thai and Asian food is obviously great tasting. On the other hand, on Friday evenings for Shabbat, there is always kiddush with chalah, and even the non-Israelis love it very much at Holina Rehab Thailands Friday nights with a difference.”
The Israelis, like in hotels, are more demanding. The Israeli, already In the initial interview on the phone, tells me: ‘I know what my problem is, and tries to explain to me how to take care of him. I usually answer: ‘If you know so well the problem and the solution, why don’t you succeed?’ They say: ”I already know everything.” This can block them initially from receiving real treatment. But they settled down and join our treatment regime at Holina Rehab Thailand.
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