Funeral Services Held for Abraham Feller; Eulogized by Tryove Lie

United Nations flags flew at half-mast today as funeral services were held for Abraham Feller, general counsel of the United Nations and its Acting Assistant Secretary General for legal affairs, who leaped to his death Thursday from his home in New York City. Burial took place at Mount Moriah Cemetery, Fairview, N.J.

One of the principal figures at the services was Secretary General Trygve Lie, who last week attributed Mr. Feller’s suicide to strain resulting from his efforts to defend fellow U.N. employees against “indiscriminate smears and exaggerated charges” of subversive activities before the McCarran Senate Internal Security Committee and a Federal Grand Jury. A representative of the U.S. delegation at the U.N., as well as Byron Price, Assistant Secretary General, Lester Pearson, president of the General Assembly. Dr. Ralph Bunche and other U.N. officials paid tribute to Mr. Feller.

Funeral services were conducted by Rabbi W. Drazin of Congregation Anshe Sfard. Mrs. Alice Feller requested that no flowers be sent to her husband’s funeral, but suggested as an alternative that contributions be made to the U.N. Children’s Emergency Fund in his memory. Among the messages received from leading statesmen and U.N. personalities was one from Abba S. Eban, Israel delegate to the U.N.

In a speech read for him by Benjamin V. Cohen, U.S. representative at the U.N., Federal Judge Charles Wyzanski of Massachusetts, noted American Jewish leader, said of Mr. Feller: “He was a great and good American; a man who loved his country and who cherished the high ideals of equality, of tolerance, of rights and freedoms, of human dignity, of democracy, which are its foundation stones and the true source of its growth and greatness.” Numerous major Jewish organizations sent messages of condolences to the U.N. Secretariat.