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2,600 Attend Simple Warburg Rites at Temple Emanu-el

October 24, 1937
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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MORE THAN 2,600 PERSONS FROM EVERY WALK OF LIFE CROWDED TEMPLE EMANU-EL TODAY TO ATTEND FUNERAL SERVICES FOR FELIX M. WARBURG, WHO DIED WEDNESDAY. HUNDREDS MORE WERE TURNED AWAY AT THE DOOR.

AFTER A SIMPLE CEREMONY THAT LASTED ONLY 25 MINUTES, THE CARNATION-SHROUDED CASKET WAS CARRIED OUT OF THE TEMPLE, WITH HIS FOUR SONS AND OTHER CLOSE RELATIVES ACTING AS PALLBEARERS, AND TAKEN WITH AN ESCORT OF MOTORCYCLE POLICE ALONG A ROUTE LINED PART OF THE WAY BY THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE TO SALEM FIELDS CEMETERY, BROOKLYN, WHERE A PRIVATE BURIAL WAS HELD IN THE SCHIFF VAULT.

SCORES OF PERSONS PROMINENT IN SOCIETY, POLITICS, FINANCE, EDUCATION, SOCIAL WELFARE WORK, ATTENDED THE SERVICES. THEY INCLUDED GOVERNOR LEHMAN, MAYOR LAGUARDIA AND AL SMITH, JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, MRS. VINCENT ASTOR, THOMAS DEWEY, JUSTICE IRVING LEHMAN, U.S. HOUSING ADMINISTRATOR NATHAN STRAUS, PERCY S. STRAUS, PRESIDENT NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, JULES S. BACHE, DR. CYRUS ADLER AND MANY OTHERS.

THE CEREMONY BEGAN PROMPTLY AT TEN O’CLOCK, WITH DR. SAMUEL SCHULMAN, RABBI EMERITUS OF THE TEMPLE, A LIFE-LONG FRIEND OF MR. WARBURG, AND RABBI SAMUEL GOLDENSON OFFICIATING, AND SIX OTHER RABBIS ASSISTING. THERE WERE NO EULOGIES.

TO THE HUSHED MUSIC OF BACH’S ORGAN PRELUDE, “ARIA,” MR. WARBURG’S CLOSE RELATIVES FILED INTO FRONT SEATS, HIS WIDOW AND DAUGHTER IN HEAVY BLACK VEILS.

AFTER THE REV. MOSHE RUDINOW HAD CHANTED “ADONOY MOH ODOM? (LORD, WHAT IS MAN?), DR. SCHULMAN, HIS VOICE BREAKING AT TIMES, RECITED THE NINETIETH PSALM. MISS RITA SEBASTIAN SANG BACH’S “KOMM, SUESSER TOD” (COME, SWEET DEATH).

DR. GOLDENSON READ FROM THE BOOK OF JOB-“….I WAS EYES TO THE BLIND, FEET TO THE LAME, FATHER TO THE NEEDY….”

CONCEALED FROM VIEW, THE STRADIVARIUS AND MUSICAL ART QUARTETS, USING MR. WARBURG’S PRICELESS STRADIVARI, PLAYED BRAHMS’ “ROMANZA.”

DR. GOLDENSON RECITED THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM OF DAVID: “THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD, I SHALL NOT WANT…” THE CASKET WAS THEN LIFTED FROM THE MARBLE PLATFORM, THE PALLBEARERS FOLLOWING. THEY WERE MR. WARBURG’S SONS, PAUL F., FREDERICK M., GERALD F. AND EDWARD M.; HIS NEPHEWS, GEORGE BACKER, ERICH WARBURG, WALTER DERNBERG AND JOHN M. SCHIFF, AND A GRANDSON, WALTER N. ROTHSCHILD JR.

A BRIEF MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR MR. WARBURG WAS HELD IN THE OFFICES OF THE JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE AT 1 P.M. BY MEMBERS OF THE STAFF WHOSE WORK MR. WARBURG HAD GUIDED SINCE THE INCEPTION OF THE ORGANIZATION IN 1914. THE SERVICE WAS HELD FOR THE BENEFIT OF THOSE STAFF MEMBERS UNABLE TO ATTEND THE RITES AT TEMPLE EMANU-EL. SERVICES WERE ALSO HELD AT THE ZIONIST OFFICES, III FIFTH AVE. WITH OFFICIALS OF THE U.P.A., J.N.F. AND Z.O.A. PARTICIPATING.

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