Gershon & Krav Maga Yashir Boston
Gershon Ben Keren was born in Glasgow (Scotland) in 1972. His mother was Israeli, and his father Scottish (they had met during the Suez Crisis of 1956). Growing
up Jewish in a sectarian city, divided on religious grounds – protestant and catholic – meant that he was often caught in the middle of rival gang feuds,
and targeted by gangs of both religions. This was at a time when knife violence in the West of Scotland had led to Glasgow becoming the murder capital of Europe.
This meant that from an early age he had a need to learn how to defend himself. This saw him taking up Judo, and Karate-Jutsu (a blend of traditional Japanese
Ju-Jitsu and Karate). He went on to gain a second-degree black belt in Judo – winning regional and national titles in the sport - and a first-degree black
belt in Karate. He also practiced boxing for a number of years and has competed on a number of occasions at the St Andrews’s Sporting Club in Glasgow.
In 1990, he started working as a doorman at a number of pubs, clubs, and bars, in the Northeast of England. This was during his time as a student studying Psychology and Forensic Psychology at the University of Sunderland, and later at the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. He holds two master’s degrees, one in Psychology/Forensic Psychology (University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne) and the other in Criminology and Criminal Psychology (University of Essex), both with distinction. He also holds several post-graduate certificates and diplomas, in areas such as Forensic Linguistics and Terrorism etc.
In 1993 when visiting Israel, he became aware of Krav Maga and saw it as a valuable reality-based self-defense system that would have practical applications in the
security work that he was engaged in. After several years training in the system, he took the 29-Day IKMF (International Krav Maga Federation) instructor course
under Eyal Yanilov and Amnon Darsa, becoming qualified as a Krav Maga instructor. During the 1990’s he also became certified as an Executive/Close Protection Officer
and took a variety of courses around firearms use for third party-protection and tactical driving. In the early 2000’s he started consulting and offering training to
a variety of law-enforcement agencies, including teaching defensive tactics at Hendon Police College (the principal training centre for London's Metropolitan Police).
For many years he ran the North London Academy of Krav Maga in Harrow, Finchley and Hendon.
In 2008 he moved to Boston, Massachusetts and started to teach Krav Maga Yashir, first in Medford, then in Charlestown, before opening up his current location in Woburn. From 2012 to 2022, his school in Charlestown (Boston) was the largest Krav Maga training facility on the US East Coast; a 16 000 sq ft training facility comprising of a gym, and several mat spaces and training areas that allowed for safe and realistic reality-based training experiences. In 2010 he was inducted into the Museum of Israeli Martial Arts in Herzliya, Israel by Dr Dennis Hanover the founder/creator of Hisardut – a fighting method used by elite units of the IDF. Gershon is a 3rd Degree Black Belt in the system and has an instructor certification in the system/approach.
He has written three Amazon best-selling books on Krav Maga (Tuttle Publishing) and has presented two Google Author Talks, concerning them, making him one of a handful
of authors who have been invited back to give a second talk. He has also been writing the weekly Krav Maga Blog since 2012. He continues to teach Krav Maga on a daily
basis and run Krav Maga Yashir Boston, whilst working as a criminologist and providing private and government agencies with security training and consultancy concerning
risk mitigation and threat management etc. If you live in the Boston/Massachusetts/New England area you have the opportunity to train with him by taking a beginner
Krav Maga class at his school in Woburn, MA (see form below for dates and registration).
The cost of the class is $25, and it is held at the following address:
Krav Maga Yashir Boston
165-E New Boston Street
Woburn, MA 01801