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38 | FEBRUARY 9 • 2023 

I

t’s a wrap. 
Leaving the scene of his 
greatest success, Yisrael 
Paliti sold his Oak Park-based 
store, Metro Frame, on the 
last day of December 2022. 
The decision disappointed 
the scores of customers and 
friends he’s made as an expert 
in custom framing and paint-
ing restoration. 
“I was happy all the way,” 
said the modest and easygo-
ing Paliti about his artistic 
career, including the 30 years 
he spent in his rented corner 
storefront at 26045 Coolidge 
Highway at Elgin Street. 
Known for his trademark 
black knit cap or a small-
brimmed hat, he likes mak-

ing French toast and using 
a French press for steaming 
cups of mild Turkish coffee 
he gets ground at Costco 
Wholesale.
Citing “increasing age and 
decreasing energy,” Paliti, 77, 
said he’s glad to finally join 
his wife Sharon, 73, a certi-
fied public accountant (CPA), 
in retirement. The Palitis, 
members of Congregation 
Beth Shalom in Oak Park 
and the progressive Zionist 
organization Ameinu Detroit, 
plan to continue tending 
to their art-filled Oak Park 
home and bountiful gardens. 
But now they relish having 
more time to travel.
Meanwhile, the curtain 

is rising on a new era, as 
Sophie and Pat, of the family 
that now owns the name and 
contents of Metro Frame, 
get ready to open their pic-
ture-framing business.

ISRAELI ROOTS
Yisrael Paliti, with the nick-
names “Izzy” or “Yis,” is a 
third-generation Sabra on 
his Jerusalem-born mother 
and grandmother’s side. His 
father, Elimelech “Eli” Paliti, 
made aliyah to Israel from 
Sambur, Poland, in the late 
1920s. Eli met Adina, Izzy’s 
mother, in Motza Ilit, a vil-
lage in the Judean Hills.
Izzy’s family — including 
his sisters, Pnina Niv and 

Asnat Amir, and his brother, 
Eldad Paliti, all still of Israel 
— settled in Kibbutz Beit Alfa 
in northern Israel. The kib-
butz founders in 1922 were 
immigrants from Poland affil-
iated with Hashomer Hatzair, 
the Labor Zionist secular 
youth movement. Izzy’s main 
occupation on the kibbutz 
was truck driver, having 
served — and not happily — 
in the Israel Defense Force’s 
tank battalion during the Six-
Day and Yom Kippur wars.
The young man’s life 
changed forever when his 
mother introduced Izzy to her 
friend and new kibbutznik 
Sharon Reider, a college grad-
uate from Iowa. 
Married on Feb. 13, 1973, 
the Palitis are celebrating 
their 50th anniversary this 
month on the kibbutz with 
family and friends. The young 
couple decided to leave Beit 
Alfa for Iowa in June 1975, 
a few months after the birth 
of their only child, Adi Paliti, 
now of Los Angeles.

LIFE IN AMERICA
With initial help from 
Sharon’s parents, Izzy and 
Sharon worked hard to secure 
their future. Izzy was a car-
penter’s helper and painted 
houses. He earned a degree 
in graphic arts at Iowa State 
University in Ames, where 
Sharon taught accounting, 
and they lived in subsidized 
housing while she was study-
ing for her master’s degree in 
business. Sharon also taught 
a year at Drake University 
in Des Moines. Following 
graduation, Izzy worked as a 
graphic artist for a short-lived 
publication. When a nearby 
frame shop took him on, he 

Master Framer Retires

Yisrael Paliti sold his Oak Park-based store, 
Metro Frame, late last year.

ESTHER ALLWEISS INGBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Yisrael 
Paliti

