Papoo’s Speech

by Mark and Joel Maimon

We are so glad that you have all come today to honor our Papoo. The number of people here today is a testament to how amazing of a person he was and how many people’s lives he touched. He was a truly special man and pioneer and the world is not the same without him. We’d like to share a few things about our Papoo that stuck out in our minds: His dedication to his faith and community, dedication to his family and his wonderful sense of humor.

Dedication to Faith and Community

As you all know, our Papoo was highly involved in our Jewish Community. He was one of the pioneers in the Seattle Sephardic Community and loved to talk history and share experiences with anyone who was interested. He taught Ladino through his weekly classes at SBH and also through his column in La Boz. He taught so many of us our Bar Mitzvah torah readings, regardless of whether you were family or not. As you know, he did not accept monetary payment for his services. His only reward was seeing a young child do well in leading the services in front of his friends and family. He also formed and chaired the “Mitzvah Corps”, which was a group of people that would go and visit every single sick person who was in the hospital. Many times, he wouldn’t even know who the person was, but that would not stop him from going for a visit. He knew that it was important regardless of any personal connection to him. As a result of all of his generosity, it wasn’t hard to notice that he was always treated with an extra degree of respect and love by the members of the Jewish Community here in Seattle.

Dedication to Family

Many of you will probably remember him greeting people saying “Alegria A Mia”, which means that “you are my happiness”. He was 100% dedicated to his wife, Rachel. She was his life-long partner and companion of 67 years (Mashalah). He would travel to Kline Galland from the Summit every single day to visit her. He knew that some days she would not be as responsive as other days, but when you’re married for 67 years, words are not important. They could simply express their love by a kiss on the cheek and by just being in each other’s company.

Papoo was also extremely dedicated to his grandchildren. We’d like to share with you a few of the many wonderful memories of the times that we’ve shared with him growing up:

We remember working with Papoo and Nonie in the garden. Picking all of the ripe fruits and vegetables and then eating them together for lunch or dinner. Papoo always loved to smoke a cigar outside as we worked.

As kids, we remember collecting newspapers and cans and taking them to the local recycling facility on Rainier Avenue.

He and Nonie loved to walk around Seward Park. They would often take us with them to feed the ducks at the lake.

Later in life, he would attend every sporting event that we were involved in and he was definitely our number one fan. When he was unable to attend our basketball games, he would always check the Seattle Times to see how many points we scored.

We remember spending Shabbat with Papoo and Nonie. How Papoo glowed seeing his children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren sit around the table and chat for hours. We remember our walks to and from the synagogue as well as rides to and from in his green ford station wagon.

HOLIDAYS together at their house:

A – Sukkot – etrog hair – only time mad ever

B – Seder – Singing – Kadesh Urehatz – Long lasting seders - JOY

C- Tada Tada La Gallina – After Passover

He taught us our BAR MITZVAH portions and other prayers:

A- Say it – Perfect because of love of torah and he wanted us to shine. COOKIES at breaktime at table.

ISRAEL- 1996

A – Kotel (found a minyan)

B- Tiberias – said mincha at Maimonides grave

Later in life, he got to know the two wonderful women that we would eventually marry. He welcomed them into the family with open arms, blessed us at our weddings and made our wives feel like part of the family right away. I know that Abby and Amy feel as though he was their own grandfather.

Sense of Humor

As you will remember, our Papoo always had a great big smile on his face. He never took life too seriously and always enjoyed a good laugh. This was fitting of him because his Hebrew name is “Yitzhak”, which means “to laugh”. We remember when we were young that the two of us would be over at our grandparent’s house and would get in trouble for some reason. Our Noni would get upset with him because he would start laughing as she was trying to teach us a lesson. At their 50^th anniversary celebration , he could not stop laughing as he said “Thou art concentrated on me”, rather than “consecrated”. He did not stop laughing for ten minutes! Later in life, we remember him being the center of attention at our weddings when he was dancing with a dollar bill stuck to his forehead. When he was in the hospital a couple months ago, we were saying goodbye to him for the night and he took our mother’s arm and would not let her leave until he had finished singing “Good Night Sweetheart”. He didn’t just sing one verse … he kept her there while he sang her the entire song!

Conclusion

Our Papoo taught us so many things throughout our lives. He taught us to be a teacher through our actions. He taught us humility and that you don’t have to have a lot monetarily to be happy. As an example, he had just spent an entire week in the hospital where he was quite uncomfortable, and as Amy and Mark were saying goodbye to him, he turned to them and said “It’s been a wonderful week”. To him, the physical discomfort he was going through was nothing compared to the act that he had his family surrounding him for an entire week.

He also taught us the value of learning and that your family and community should always come first. He lived by his synagogue’s name “Bikur Holim”, which means that you should visit the sick.

Despite him not being here physically, the qualities that he taught us live in on in all who knew him during his life. The one thing that would honor him more than anything else would be for all of us left behind to continue to do the things that he taught us were so important and that will keep his spirit alive forever.