Future generations will be told about a man who was born in Tel Aviv, fought in the War of Independence, traveled to the US with $7 in his pocket, returned after forty years with $4 billion in the bank, acquired control of a third of Israel's economic activities, and above all, loved to eat pitta bread filled with vegetables.
Theodore Arison's funeral today fitted his lifestyle. It took place at the Kiryat Shaul cemetery, without eulogies. No-one knew better than Arison how people cling to honey, and he accepted it.
The entire business world came. Quietly. "The last time I saw him, he told me…," they whispered. A funeral is a platform for showing one belongs to the "milieu" as well. Arison noticed this bemusedly in his lifetime.
Americans and Israelis accompanied him on his final journey, all his family: his wife Lin, son Micky with his wife and two children, daughter Shari with husband Micky Dorsman and two grown children Jason and David, two sisters Aviva Tamir and Rina Brower with their families, all division managers connected to Arison's investments.
Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah, and Chief Rabbi of Israel Yisrael Lau were among the first to arrive. "When Mrs. Arison asked me to say a few parting words in Hebrew and in English, Lau said, "she said Ted was in fact returning to his roots - in Tel Aviv. The body does not depart, it returns to the place it came from. But the spirit rises to heaven and joins the Lord who created him."
No-one else spoke. His son recited the prayer over the grave. Family members rended their clothes.
It was hot. At the gates, empty limosines with engines and air-conditioning running waited. It would not have happened with Arison, who in his modesty knew where he came from and where he was going. Even when he ran the fleet of 45 luxury ships at Carnival Cruise, he knew exactly how much gasoline each ship consumed, and how much laundry they handled.
Next Monday, a basketball game will be played at the sports stadium between Miami Heights, owned by the Arison family, and Maccabi Tel Aviv. The date of the game was set many months ago, but it is so befitting that it will take place during the week of mourning. It will be a commemoration, a game in Ariuson's memory. He surely would have enjoyed that.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on October 3, 1999