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Lehman, Wise, Rabbi Baeck Speak at Laying of Cornerstone for Free Synagogue

March 15, 1948
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The embattled Jews of Palestine are like the Jews of old who were willing to defend freedom oven with their lives for a Just and peaceful world,” former Governor Herbert H, Lehman declared at a ceremony this week-end medicating the cornerstone for a new Free Synagogue building. Lehman asserted confidence “that those who will build the now Palestine will be motivated by the same traditions and ideals which have guided this Free Synagogue congregation.” He called for return to religious principles on a world scale.

Dr. Stephen S. Wise placed the cornerstone, a 2760-year-old relic of the first temple in Jerusalem, on the building foundation. He pointed out that while the congregation had waited forty-one years for this cornerstone and the building it will support, “this stone has waited two thousand years and will now again become a part of the Jewish sanctuary.” The new building will adjoin the Free Synagogue’s temporary quarters at the Jewish Institute of Religion.

Dr. Leo Baeck, former Chief Rabbi of Berlin and president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, whose synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis, paid tribute to the Free Synagogue congregation and to Dr. Wise.

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