DAVID SHAMOON

SHAMOON--David. The Upper East Side of Manhattan lost a legend, David Simon Shamoon, on April 21, 2023. He died from heart failure and everything else that goes wrong when you're lucky enough to live to be 95. He had been out for lunch just five days earlier giving his daughter a lecture on real estate investing and died at home with his family by his side, just as he had wished. Born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1928 to a Jewish merchant family, David was the oldest of eight children. Feeling that the climate for Jews in Baghdad was not safe, his parents sent him along with the rest of his siblings to boarding school in Brighton, England of which he had fond memories of English food and sport. He later graduated from the University of Brighton before returning to Baghdad. The climate in Baghdad continued to erode for Jews and in 1947 began the Zionist effort to smuggle Iraqi Jews out of that country and into Palestine, later Israel (1947-52). This effort was documented in the book Operation Babylon, which ended the exile of the oldest Jewish community in the world. David's family remained one of the last Jewish families in Baghdad until the 1960s, at which time they too felt that they could no longer safely remain. Having had to leave the bulk of their lives behind in Baghdad, the family settled in Israel to begin anew, and many of the younger generation dispersed around the world to New York City, London, Basel, Sydney and Perth. David arrived in New York City and integrated into the Manhattan landscape, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1963 at the age of 35. David was an old-world merchant type who could sell ice in Alaska. Always up for the next business idea, he had his hands in multiple careers at once. He was a landlord of small buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn and later built homes in the Hamptons. He owned a high-end women's clothing store, Rive Droite, next door to Serendipity 3 on East 60th Street and later went on to open an import/export clothing store on Delancey Street. He started his own line of jeans, King David Jeans, and was so passionate about food that he opened a seafood restaurant, Calamity, on Second Avenue, which was in fact a calamity, as the chef had a drinking problem and often missed work, leaving the kitchen unattended. David owned an antique store in Water Mill, NY which he used to cover up his obsession with collecting everything under the sun, from stamps to life-size bronze horses. He was a lover of jewelry, which he both designed and wore. David often handed out raw stones to random people he met at coffee shops while conversing about art, poetry or food. He loved speaking Arabic, his native language, and could often be found speaking Arabic to food vendors and taxi drivers throughout Manhattan. Out of all his passions, and there were many, his greatest love was his family. Home in time for dinner every night of the week, he was a family man. A colorful character that could light up any room and entertain people with his epic stories of cholera quarantine in Egypt and restaurant table tricks. Worldly, funny and creative with all his marbles and a full head of hair until he died, there was just nobody else like him. His family does not seek privacy at this time, nor do they suggest donating to a cause. Please get dressed up, take yourself to dinner and start randomly talking to the people sitting next to you. Enjoy this time and think of David, a lover of life and New York City. David is survived by the most fabulous caregiver in the world, his wife Jill Shamoon, their daughter Samira Shamoon and his four- legged granddoghter, Poppy. David also absolutely adored his ex-son-in-law Charles "Chip" Bensinger III, a true mensch. The family will be honoring David with a belly dancing memorial party in the fall.