Kaddish for Humphrey

Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey was eulogized at a Jewish memorial service Thursday in Yiddish terms as a “mensh” and with having “a Yiddishe hartz” and a “Yiddishe nashoma” while his contributions to civil rights, social justice and support of Israel were remembered with expressions of love and respect by a large number of men and women who crowded the Religious Action Center of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. The mourners joined Rabbi David Saperstein, the Center’s director, in reciting in Hebrew the Kaddish and chanting the Oseh Shalom that concluded the service.

Vice President Walter Mondale, in a letter to friends of the late Vice President and Senator, which was read by Hyman Bookbinder, the Washington representative of the American Jewish Committee who led the service, said that ” of all the ways Hubert has been remembered in recent days, he would have especially appreciated this memorial service by the American Jewish community with whom he was closely bound.”

“For more than thirty years, ” Mondale wrote,” you fought all the good fights together–for civil rights and social justice, for Israel’s security in the world. Sometimes, Hubert has been described in terms that are larger than life but I believe a phrase in Yiddish describes him best. He was a ‘mensh’ in the truest sense of the word.”

Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz said ” Humphrey loved us not because of what he wanted us to be but what we are.” He recalled Humphrey telling him, “You are fighting with your life for those things that we take for granted.”