Obituary | Max Israel, food broker, community volunteer

Max Israel aimed to live by example.

After 68 years of marriage, he still held hands with his wife, Mary. Laughter was his best medicine, an elixir he readily shared with family and friends, the local Sephardic community, golfing buddies. In retirement, he strode the halls of Bellevue's Overlake Hospital Medical Center, where he volunteered to comfort patients while escorting them to treatments.

Mr. Israel died Saturday night (Oct. 25) of complications of Parkinson's disease, surrounded by family in his Bellevue home. He was 92.

"He was a human being who cared more for others than he did for himself," said family friend and longtime business partner Joe Agoado, with whom he ran food brokerage Israel & Agoado. "He always offered respect to me and to everybody else in his business life, and from that I gained a lot."

Born Oct. 2, 1916, in Seattle to Louie and Victoria Israel, Sephardic Jews who immigrated from the Greek isle of Rhodes, Max Israel was taught from an early age to put family first and create a better life for himself and his future family. His father managed Palace Fish, now Pike Place Market's Pure Food Fish Market, and helped found Congregation Ezra Bessaroth, among Seattle's first Sephardic synagogues.

Mr. Israel left Seattle's Garfield High School early to help support his family. In 1940 he wed Mary Benezra, who stole his heart when he witnessed her in a passionate debate with fellow synagogue members.

"He'd tell this story and say, 'I saw her, I fell head over heels for her,' " his granddaughter, Jessie Israel, remembered. "Then he'd say, 'I didn't realize she was like this every day.' "

As World War II swelled, he joined the Navy and worked as a radarman in the Pacific aboard the troop transport USS Fremont, his granddaughter said. In 1953 he founded a food brokerage, Max L. Israel Co., later partnering with Agoado. He went on to serve as president of the Seattle Food Brokers Association.

Mr. Israel was at his happiest in Seaside, Ore., where the family would gather en masse to walk the beach and promenade, his granddaughter remembered.

"I never saw him get angry in my entire life, and we were pretty rowdy grandchildren," Jessie Israel said. "He never would raise his voice, he never would raise his hand. His way was to lead by example, quietly lead by example, and just expect high things of everyone around him."

Said daughter Vicky Morgan: "He built a family dynasty of good, hardworking, reputable, generous, charitable people, because that's what he was."

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Israel is survived by his wife; sons Larry, Allen and Arthur Israel; sister Irene Eskenazi; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

Services are 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home, 11111 Aurora Ave. N., Seattle. Memorials may be made to Overlake Hospital Medical Center Foundation or to Northwest Parkinson's Foundation.

Karen Gaudette: 206-515-5618 or kgaudette@seattletimes.com