Aharon Sinai Katz

Everything about Aharon Sinai Katz's life was unpredictable and electric—starting with his birth on July 29, 1947, in a former Nazi munitions factory.

 

His parents were from opposite sides of Poland. Moshe, his father, was a Galicianer born in Rymanov. Bella, his mother, was a proud Litvak from Malkinia. Both of their lives were to be torn apart by the Nazi invasion of Poland. Moshe fled to the Soviet Union, only to be sent to a labor camp soon after his arrival. Bella, a passionate political activist, also escaped to the Soviet Union where she was put in a labor camp until the tail end of the war. While their specific whereabouts during the war are less certain, what is known is that at the end of the Holocaust the two found themselves without nearly any surviving family members. Alone, they each made their way to Szczecin, a Polish town that was said to be safe for Jews. It was here that they met, fell in love, and married. Within a couple of months, Bella was pregnant. Despite Szczecin's aspiration to be a kind of ‘kibbutz’ for Polish Jewish survivors, the conditions in the city were squalid and unlivable. Moshe and Bella took their chances and fled to Germany where Displaced Persons' camps erected by the Americans were helping Jews leave Europe.

 

They landed in a small German town called Furstenhagen, to live in a DP camp called Goldcup. Eight months later, their son was born. And while Bella wanted his first name to be Sinai, the name of her father, those registering births at the time prohibited it. He could only have a Christian name, she was told. She and Moshe selected Aharon—although Bella, Moshe and everyone close to him, would only ever call him Sinai.Less than a year later, the family of three took a boat for what was then Palestine. Difficulties with Moshe’s health began on the boat when he suffered a heart attack and nearly died—he spent the rest of his life needing frequent spells of bed rest.

 

Israel’s War of Independence was fought within weeks of their arrival. The Katz family lived first in makeshift tents and later were moved to a small village outside Tel Aviv called Ramat HaTayasim (Pilot Heights). With few resources, a young child and an ailing husband, Bella decided to transform an empty corner across from their apartment building into the town's first market. Here she sold everything from herring to sodas. Her ambition and determination in the village were unmatched, and it was because of the life she built that her son was able, after serving in the air force during the Six-Day War, to move to Los Angeles to study.

 

Inheriting Bella’s gusto, Sinai inhaled everything about life in California. He loved the landscape and culture and soon became a fixture at the city's most chic establishments. His wife-to-be, Bonnie, first spotted Sinai walking through the Farmers Market, shirtless in denim overalls and yellow clogs. Their first conversation took place late one night on the dance floor of The Candy Store nightclub in Beverly Hills. After dating for less than a month, they took a "champagne flight" to Vegas and eloped.

 

His unwavering tenacity helped him and Bonnie to launch Paper Chase in 1976. Started in the basement of an apartment building with a new baby girl and one employee, Paper Chase grew, through Sinai’s unbridled ambition and Bonnie's devotion to a shared vision and focus from a mom-and-pop office supply shop into one of the finest printing establishments on the West Coast. When it was time to retire, Sinai handed over the business to his second daughter, and followed his passion for cycling, heated political debates with fellow Israelis, and spending time with his family on trips around the world.

 

Sinai's lifetime of love and devotion to his friends and family—which grew to encompass three grandchildren—was one of his most outstanding qualities. He passed away at the age of 78, surrounded by loved ones.

 

Sinai will be remembered for his free spirit, unending commitment to the well-being of those he cared deeply for, and an inimitable personality that always transformed whatever room he was in.