With bowed head, and great humility, that I sit down to write a few words on the passing of a very dear Hakim Family member on behalf of my wife Miriam, my children, and grandchildren, and on behalf of the Hakim Family Association around the world.

It was on Tuesday morning, February 16, 1998, approximately at 9:00 A.M. Sydney, Australia time, that Albert Hakim was taken away from us. As the news reached us, we the Hakim Family in Israel and throughout the Diaspora were saddened, and in grief. We want to bid farewell to a princely man, upright, a G’d fearing man, full of life, wise, and always in good humor, ready to tell you a joke.

I remember the day in 1981, that I met him in Australia, for the purpose of finding out whether we are related. We met through a family friend, who grew up with him in Cairo, Egypt. We picked Albert up on the way to the airport, since I was returning home to the US, after attending my niece’s wedding. The chemistry between us worked immediately, even before we established that we are somehow related, but did not know as yet how. It was at a later date that we found out that his grandfather and my great grandfather where brothers. It was that meeting that gave me the impetus to work harder on the Hakim Family genealogy.

Albert, son of Ephraim Hakim and Victoria Mizrahi, was taken prematurely from us, when we needed him most. When the idea of a Hakim Family Reunion in Israel was suggested , he became one of its most ardent supporters. And he was not about to miss that reunion for anything in the world. He was already sick then, but he was there, enjoying and laughing, and joking with everyone. It was only after he left back home to Australia, that we learned of his illness. When Miriam and I visited him and his family in December 1997, Albert was seriously ill, he just came out of the hospital, but we felt that he still had the fighting spirit in him, and will fight it out and cheat death, for the sake of his immediate family, and the expanded Hakim Family. He viewed the video tape, that our family took at the reunion. With great delight and enthusiasm, he relived those precious moments of the reunion.

Lord Almighty, You know how much Albert loved life, his wife and children, and grandchildren, and recently his extended Hakim Family. We only began to rediscover our roots, but Albert is no longer with us, to help us carry this difficult task. Why was this princely man taken away from us? Why was this devoted husband, father and grandfather taken away from us so quickly? Why was this geographically distant but close friend and family member taken away? We have no answers to these questions, and it is the reason for all of us being bewildered. If we can find any consolation, it is that you, G’d, King of the Universe, needs Albert Hakim beside you to perform a higher celestial task.

We, as the Hakim Family, pray in unison to you, O’ Merciful G’d, have mercy on your devoted servant. You, Father of tender love and life, look on the good that Albert did in life. May he come to you, and join his ancestors, true and pure, advancing before you in the realm of life. Command the celestial gates to be opened before him, to enter Your realm, where the good have life. Let celestial justice go before him, clearing a level path for him, shield- bearing. Bless the soul of your servant, whom You have taken from us to be beside You.

To you Albert, son of Ephrayim and Victoria Hakim, who has been taken from us, we say we miss you, and we feel robbed with your absence. May you rest with your Hakim ancestors, immortally held in the bond of life in paradise, as you are surely destined to eternal life. Be assured that we the Hakim Family members will continue the work we started, and in which you took part. We will continue to search and find the rest of the Hakim Family, and bring them together.

We bid farewell to you, sweet prince, rest now with your people’s saints immortally held in the bond of life.

Raphael Ortasse
International Chairman
Hakim Family Association
10924 Wrightwood Ln.
Studio City, CA 91604 USA
February 18 ,1998