SCOTTSDALE — A Scottsdale barber shop owner is working to get his mother home from Israel after she went to visit her family.
Rafail has been trusted to shave some of the most famous faces in sports and culture. The European barbershop owner, originally from Kazakhstan, once had Muhammad Ali as a regular.
”He used to be my customer for two years, but for six months, I was actually shaking like a leaf when I used to give him shave,” he said underneath a picture of the two of them hanging in his barber ship.
For the past several days, he’s been nervous for much bigger reasons. Rafail says his mother, Maria, went to visit family in Israel at the end of September. She’s now struggling to come back to the United States after the Hamas attacks.
He’s unsure if the airport will be operational for her flight, so now he’s working with the US government to try and get her back, all while he watches the war unfold from behind a barber chair.
Through a text message, Rafail says his mother told him she has exactly 41 seconds to get into a bunker once she hears sirens.
”Knowing my mom, I hope she’s going to be alive. At this moment, people die not just from the rockets but also heart attacks,” he said.
Last week, Rafail hung an Israeli flag next to his American flag at his shop, but when his stand broke, leaving just the Israeli flag up, he got a note from the property manager to remove it immediately.
He said he was told it’s against neighborhood rules.
”Innocent people are dying. He’s the one who wants me to take my flag down? He’s my landlord and I understand I have to do everything possible, that’s when I said it’s not right,” he said.
ABC15 attempted to speak to Rafail's property manager but did not get a response.
Rafail has bigger things to worry about beyond the aesthetics inside or outside of his shop.
”I’m trying to help with positive things. Our whole family, we’re trying to show them positivity,” he said.
Due to safety concerns from those involved in this story, last names were omitted.
