He was a member of the Jackson Democratic Club and a major force in getting Black and Latino candidates elected to public office.

Karmon (originally Kaminsky) was born in the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York to immigrants from Eastern Europe.

[1] The store, located on Prospect Avenue and East 163rd Street in the Morrisania section of the Bronx[3] was opened in the late 1930s and remained in operation until the 1970s.

Among the store's regular clients were jazz saxophonist Benny Carter and Colin Powell, who at the time was a student at City College and ROTC member.

[1] Karmon lived the last years of his life in the Pelham Parkway section of the Bronx, and continued to run his various businesses and real estate ventures in the borough.

[1] In May 2000, José E. Serrano and Eliot Engel both entered tributes into the Congressional Record honoring Karmon on the occasion his 90th birthday.