Over 3,000 prominent citizens filled the Temple Beth-El, and more than 1,000 waited outside, during the funeral services yesterday for Oscar S. Straus, former Ambassador to Turkey and first Jewish Cabinet member, who died on Monday.
Dr. Simon Cohen, acting rabbi of the temple, officiated. The funeral service was read by Dr. Stephen S. Wise, rabbi of the Free Synagogue. The eulogy was delivered by George Foster Peabody, a boyhood friend of Mr. Straus.
The honorary pallbearers were Dr. Cyrus Adler, Dr. Edwin Beer, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University, Bainbridge Colby, former Secretary of State; Dr. F. M. Clendenin of St. Peter’s, West Chester, N. Y.; Alfred A. Cook, railroad financier; George B. Cortelyou, former Secretary of the Treasury; Abram I. Elkus, former Ambassador to Turkey; Daniel Guggenheim, George S. Hellman, biographer of Robert Louis Stevenson and art critic; Hamilton Holt, editor and educator; Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce; Dr. Robert Underwood Johnson, former Ambassador to Italy; Darwin P. Kingsley, President of the New York Life Insurance Company; Eugene Meyer, financier; William Loch. Secretary to President Roosevelt; Henry Morgenthau, former Ambassador to Turkey; Adolph S. Ochs, publisher of the New York “Times”; Kermit Roosevelt, Lewis L. Strauss, banker, and William R. Wilcox.
The interment took place in the family vault in Beth-El Cemetery, Salem Fields.
Among the many expressions of condolence which reached the Straus home yesterday was a resolution passed at a special meeting of the Board of Directors of the League for American Citizenship, which declared that “the career of Oscar S. Straus, as publicist, exemplifies the opportunities America affords to immigrants and the service they have rendered to the upbuilding of this country, and that in his passing America has lost an outstanding public servant.” The resolution was signed by Nathaniel Phillips, President.
A resolution of the League of Nations Non-Partisan Association declared: “In the death of Oscar Straus the cause of international cooperation has lost a pioneer and the League of Nations Non-Partisan Association a valued member and officer. An active Vice President of this association since its founding, his counsels will be greatly missed within our ranks. Oscar Straus was one of the members of the group which drafted the four basic principles eventually embodied in the covenant of the League of Nations, and was in attendance in Paris at the Peace Conference. It is impossible to estimate to what extent the achievements of the League in the last six years have been due to the statesmanlike sagacity and high idealism of this distinguished public servant.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
