JEWISH IRANIAN IMMIGRANT LOSES LIFE’S WORK IN MELROSE LOOTING
FUNDRAISING EFFORT TO PUT THIS VICTIMIZED MAN BACK IN BUSINESS
THE FAMILY HAS ALMOST REACHED ITS FUNDRAISING GOAL
PLEASE SEE LINK BELOW TO DONATE NOW YOU CAN HELP!
Read the incredible story of triumph, survival, and a family’s ability to succeed in adversity.
81 year old “Ned” Harounian in front of his looted and destroyed business.
Nedjatollah ‘Ned’ Harounian got legal permission and fled Iran leaving behind his wife, Yaffa and two small daughters until he could arrange for them to meet him in America. His young son, Ebbi then 13, was shot in the leg crossing the Pakistani border while escaping Iran to get to Austria for refuge. He was taken in by Rav Tov in Austria, a religious organization that helps refugees awaiting assistance from the organization HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) to get to the US. At age 14, he arrived in the US alone. In the meantime, his father went to Israel alone and waited for a year for his wife and daughters, age 4 and 11 to escape and make it to Austria. It took another year for HIAS to get the proper paperwork for all of them to immigrate to the US.
Upon arriving in the US in 1987, Ned and Yaffa bought Solomon’s Bookstore on Fairfax Ave. in Los Angeles. Six months later, Yaffa was diagnosed with cancer. After many months of chemotherapy, she beat the cancer. They then bought a shoe store on Melrose and named it after their son, Ebbi – Ebbi’s. That one store turned into seven stores and then in 2008 they closed all but one of the Ebbi’s shoe stores.
In 2018, Yaffa passed away. “For 45 years mom and dad spent every day together – working, building, fighting, laughing and crying” says their son, Ebbi.
Ned was now alone, sold the store and opened a smaller location which was the current Doc Martin shoe store on Melrose. “After my mother’s passing, my father spent every moment at that store. He kept all of my mother’s personal belongings at the store. He even dressed a mannequin in the store in his wife’s clothes so he could always see her and smell her fragrance”. “This store was all my father had left and now he has nothing.”
On this past motzaei Shabbos, Saturday night May 30, looters broke into, destroyed and burned down the store. 81 year old Ned has nothing left. According to his son, Ebbi, his father wanders aimlessly up and down Melrose. “We are now raising money, not to replace everything my father lost, but to purchase another store, because without it he will not survive.”
Please see our GoFundMe page and help us save our father. CLICK HERE
