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Collecting Yishai Jesse Vitkin's memories in one place
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Jessica Vitkin
Jesse Vitkin, RIP and his loving memories be a blessing. I met Jesse in 1977 in Kalamazoo Michigan. We were both new students. He was one of my best friends. I am very saddened to hear he passed away. This evening I sent a Hanukkah greeting to Jesse through Facebook messenger and all of a sudden since there was no reply I began to search and got t...
Jessica Vitkin Jessica Vitkin was born
Jessica Vitkin Erica Vitkin was born
Jessica Vitkin
I don't have any pictures of Jesse. So to stumble onto this site has been a blessing. We met through work when Jesse came to Grand Rapids at the closing of the Kalamazoo plant. It didn't take too long for us to become great friends. We shared many good times while working together. He was always upbeat and fun. We had several great conversati...
Jessica Vitkin
Jessica Vitkin
Jessica Vitkin
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Jessica Vitkin
Jessica Vitkin
From the moment we moved into the cul-de-sac to the last time I saw Jesse we were always welcomed with big warm smiles, chats about our walks or how our day was going. My favorite memory was after the election results came in- he strolled down the road with a U.S. flag waving it back and forth with a big smile on his face. We cheered and laughed w...
Jessica Vitkin Born in Kibbutz Ramat Hashofet, Israel, Yishai served his country through two wars, competed as a world class Long Jumper, and just barely missed qualifying for the ill-fated Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 Munich games. He came to the US in 1976 with little knowledge of the language or anything in his pocket, but had an excitement for opportunity and new experiences. Lucky for us he made his way to Western Michigan University where he met and fell in love with his English teacher, my mother Mary Lu. Despite living in the US for 40+ years he constantly had strangers shouting “welcome to America” at him. He never let it bother him since he knew the intent was positive, because that is just the kind of person he was. He was a life long lover of sports. It didn’t matter who won, as long as a good game was played and young talent was nurtured, he was happy. He volunteered at the USTA boys tennis tournament for decades, and coached our AYSO soccer teams. When Erica was training for her marathon he would see her running and roll down his window and shout “SOOO PROUD” It’s hard to describe our father to anyone who hasn’t met him because he just has a beautiful soul, and he is ridiculous. He will do anything to find common ground with anyone and truly believes there is good in everyone. Everything we did made him proud. He left us so quickly that it’s hard to put into words the void that will be left and the weight of this loss. I feel so fortunate that we all spent the last week with him as a family, and for the outpouring of support from his family and friends around the world, from Israel to his cul-de-sac. The night after his passing his amazing cul-de-sac neighbors put out lights in his honor and it so beautifully fitting for Yishai, a beautiful soul who brought love and light into this world. We love you forever. “Don’t let the truth get in the way of the story” -Yishai “Jesse” Vitkin, 1947-2021
Jesse was a lovely man and a great conversationalist. He would come down to the house and we'd sit on the deck or front porch and share stories and laughter - and sometimes a good beer:) We loved listening and laughing together with him. He will be missed, and we were blessed to call him a friend.
"Hello, Jesse" , "Hello, Michael" Those are the greetings we would shout to each other at the end of our driveways as we collected our mail or just happened to to be out at the same time. I miss that as I sit on my porch, staring down at Jesse's house, wishing he would appear once again. We first met Jesse when we moved here in 2014, and he inst...
Lisa Redman When I met Jesse, in the late 70’s, I often thought he was like Mork from Ork. He came from a place far away and he had a different and interesting perspective on everything that I just thought was ordinary. Things that I took for granted, he seemed to be very enthusiastic about. Like laundromats. I remember Mary Lu telling me how he ran into the laundromat to stake out a washing machine so no one else could get to it before they brought in their clothes. I don’t remember the whole scenario, but I remember laughing at the story because he saw things differently than I did and it was wonderful to think that the mundane things could be so much more interesting when you look at them through someone else’s eyes. I always enjoyed hearing about Israel and what life was like there. I will miss talking to him and am sorry that it has been so long since I did talk to him. He was very different from the rest of our family, and we were probably not always the easiest people to be around. But we were better for having him as a part of the family.