“The whole Jewish population in Palestine stood and mourned at the grave of Bialik. To them he was more than the master poet who had recaptured the ancient Hebraic spirit and poured it into songs that will survive the ages. He was the intellectual leader, the philosopher and guide, the unchallenged moral authority in the new Homeland. We here, as Jews throughout the world, bow our heads in grief at the irreparable loss which the Jewish people have sustained of an incomparable literary talent who above all stood as the symbol of the Jewish cultural revival.
“In the shadow of the prophets of whom he was the lineal descendant, wrapped in the mantel of immortality, Bialik will sleep while countless generations of a new Jewish life will rise up about him and translate into deeds the golden dreams of a nation reborn which he clothed in deathless words.
“All parties and all branches of the Zionist movement join in solemn and affectionate tribute to the memory of Chaim Nachman Bialik, one of the most gifted and revered of Israel’s sons.”
ENLARGED JEWISH LIFE
Louis Lipsky, member of the World Zionist Executive, who knew the poet intimately, said of him that “he was born in a Jewish world that was narrow and confined. It was straining itself against the walls that encircled it and was beginning to pour itself out into the alien world, seeking self-realization and self-expression. He turned that flow back again into the ancestral groove by enlarging the Jewish world, broadening its horizon, reviving the things that seemed to be dead, quickening with his keen insight every fragment of spirit that gave promise of a future, and left the Jewish world large enough to hold in an iron grip all who seek freedom through the liberation of their own people. He found that world poor and left it rich enough to sustain an ever-increasing Jewish life.”
Chaim Greenberg, member of the World Zionist Actions Committee, declared that “nobody in this generation has felt the sorrow of the Jewish people as has Bialik.”
“Bialik,” he said, “characterized the national poet and singer of the Jewish people. Bialik was the one who woke us up, who made us protest against our persecutors.”
Professor Touroff described Bialik as “a great constructive genius and a great nationalist.”
An impressive feature of the memorial meeting was the recitation of the “Hazkarah,” traditional Hebrew prayer for the dead by Cantor David Putterman of the Park Avenue Synagogue.
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.
