Nobody, no matter how successful or influential, exists in a social and cultural vacuum. From the greatest philanthropists to the newest eager entrepreneurs, peoples’ families and backgrounds color the way they approach their career, their education, and their legacies. Asking any professional about the early years of his or her career will inevitably include some story or comment about the way their family’s support or absence, approval or disapproval, affected their journey and the lessons they learned along the way.
This fact of life is universal, but few understand it as well as Elliot Maza, life science entrepreneur, attorney, and nephew of the late comedian Jackie Mason. Coming from a generational line of scholars, legal advocates, and community leaders, it’s no surprise that Elliot Maza currently serves as a senior adviser to pharmaceutical and med-tech companies, providing strategic advice concerning corporate growth, investor relations, mergers and acquisitions, and license transactions. Looking back on his career, Maza can’t help but see the ways his career and outlook on life have been shaped by his family, and his relationship with his uncle affected how he thinks of the legacy he’ll one day leave behind.
Inspired by the words of his father and uncle, and molded by his own firsthand experiences, Elliot Maza has recently stepped away from much of his high-profile legal and executive career toward philanthropy, seeking to continue his family’s generational commitment to scholarship and education. He dedicates his time to supporting a local nonprofit that focuses on employment assistance programs, as well as a private international charity foundation that funds educational projects for those in need around the world.
“Like Jackie, I have had many ups and downs in my career,” Maza says. “I have had to persevere and keep pushing myself to get to where I am today. I hope those who know me will say that I gave more than I took, I was kind, generous and caring, and that I lived an authentic life.”
A Beloved Rabbi, Comedian, and Uncle
Elliot Maza learned much from his family, the most famous of which being the famous comedian Jackie Mason, birth name Yacov Maza. After his uncle’s choice to step away from being a Rabbi and delivering sermons and into the limelight of show business, Elliot Maza’s immediate family would create many family memories of gathering around the TV set to see Jackie on the Ed Sullivan show or some other program. To Maza, Jackie represented not just a close relative, but someone who could choose their own path in life and succeed doing so.
“My father was Jackie’s older brother and often Jackie would ask me how my father was doing and if I was following in my father’s and grandfather’s footsteps to become a Rabbi,” Elliot Maza recalls. “I would joke with Jackie that, like him, I wanted out of the ‘family business’. During those conversations, Jackie showed his unbreakable bond with his family and his upbringing in my grandfather’s home, which was quite serious and scholarly and had little connection to show business.”
Jackie Mason’s entertainment career was not without its troubles, but few ever are. He rose from plying dozens of small venues with his jokes and stories, to TV and Broadway stages, finding success even after being banned from the Ed Sullivan show and experiencing career derailment as a result. This perseverance became a defining trait of Jackie in Elliot Maza’s mind, and his uncle’s example would be carried onward in Maza’s own career.
“Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, better known under his pen name Sholem Aleichem, a Yiddish author and playwright who lived in the early 1900’s, was quoted as saying, ‘No matter how bad things get, you’ve got to go on living, even if it kills you,’” says Maza. “Jackie would have delivered that same joke, and like him, I learned that every day is a new day to awake and pursue your dreams.”
A Lifetime’s Legacy
With his uncle’s passing at the age of 93, Elliot Maza found himself inevitably thinking about legacy. The glitz and glamour and financial success were great, sure, but the thing that mattered most to Jackie, and thus to his nephew, was and is the impact they have on other people. At a turning point in his own career, where executive and legal excellence are being set aside for philanthropy and community service, Elliot Maza can’t help but think about how his family changed the world around them for the better—and how he can continue that tradition. Like his father and uncle, Maza’s family is a guiding light and moral compass, and this common bond brought Elliot and his uncle together.
“I had dinner with my uncle shortly before he passed away,” Maza recalls. “I expressed to him that he and my father were not as different in their life’s work as he might have thought. My father brought Jewish awareness to people through his profession as a rabbi in a synagogue, and [Jackie] brought Jewish awareness to people through his profession as a comedian on the international stage. I told him that my grandfather would be proud of him. He said that my words to him brought him much comfort.”
More than anything else, Elliot Maza credits his family for the culture of peace and acceptance he tries to carry forth into the world. All of the men in his family, from his father, to his uncle, to his grandfather, made a point of initiating greetings with everyone they met, even if the recipient seemed unfriendly or distant. Having such consistent models of proactive kindness, always ready with a smile and friendly word, instilled in Maza a respect for the proactive kindness that lifted others up at every opportunity. It’s this legacy, one of smiles, laughter, and understanding, that Elliot Maza hopes to share with future generations—be it by example, or through a rich historical tradition befitting his family’s scholarly background.
“The people in the generation that watched Jackie perform on stage and on TV are in the twilight of life,” Maza says. “His humor, wisdom and life experience of fulfilling his dreams regardless of obstacles will soon be left to history unless memorialized and publicized through online content with wide audience and appeal. That legacy highlights the value of proactive kindness and highlights a Jewish teaching that encourages all Jews to be the first to offer “shalom” (peace) to everyone they encounter.”
