Dear Ari:
You, Ari Orlando, leave us bereft of your smile, your wonderful hugs, your humility, your awesome stories about your mother revealing to you at her death that she lit Friday night candles. Ari, you were a living link in the chain of Jews and coerced non-Jews all the way back to pre-1492, pre-expulsion Sephardi Jewry.
You showed us that love of the G-d of Israel has neither ethnic nor racial boundary. You showed it over and over in so many varied ways. You were there when others died, volunteering for the chevra kadisha. You were sensitive, involved and caring. And few knew that you carried a magnificent intelligence which mastered many of the major European philosophers of the 20th century.
You lived each stage of life to its fullest. As your life drew to a close you identified with and fought for the rights and dignity of the elderly. You were their friend, because you had that all too rare capacity for friendship. People today have spouses, children, parents, colleagues, associates, acquaintances, opponents, detractors, siblings, cousins, heroes but very few people have true friends. We shall miss your friendship, deep and true, and we shall miss your awesome fear of Heaven. We shall miss your presence and your heart. So many loved you, Ari. We hope you knew. May G-d carry you well on your last journey.
Dear Arthur:
You, Arthur Kittay, leave us without our key voice in the mountains, and leave Israel without her chief friend in the mountains.
Your passion never waned. Your creativity in defending the good name of Israel never sagged. O we loved those phone calls from you, telling us the way you formulated a letter to the editor in the Vail Daily, and the way you convinced the paper to run it always putting the case for Israel with intelligence, facts and restraint.
Arthur, you were a miracle at sustaining your overwhelming enthusiasm for Israel, yet containing it within the walls of reason and calm persuasiveness when presenting it to skeptics or to the ignorant. You got the word out, time and again. We are proud that the pages of the IJN were among your pro-Israel tools.
You were a person who could live with, nay, love, others with whom you had differences. The Talmud talks about distinguishing between the person and the issue a distinction easy to make in the abstract, difficult to carry out in practice. But not for you. Whatever side anyone was on, you, Arthur, knew the art of friendship and camaraderie. The Jewish communities of the mountains miss you, very deservedly so. So do we.
