The creation in Israel of a “reservoir of scientific knowledge and talents,” to replace the “great repository of Jewish scholarship and science in Eastern Europe” in large part annihilated, was urged tonight by General David Sarnoff, chairman of the Board of the Radio Corporation of America, in addressing the memorial tribute to late President Chaim Weismann of Israel held at the Waldorf Astoria here.
Fifteen hundred guests, including leading American and U. N. statesmen and political figures, many ambassadors, world-famed scientists and community leaders attended the tribute, which was sponsored by the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science. Mrs. Vera Welsmann, the President’s widow, had flown specially from Israel to attend the commemoration. The Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria had been specially decorated for the occasion and 78 candles near the rostrum symbolized the late President’s age.
Dr. Nahum Goldmann, who was one of the principal speakers, hailed the late Dr. Welsmann as “the most consummate synthesis of an (Eastern Jew saturated with the fullness of Western European culture.” He said that the late President’s Zionism was “the natural consequence of his Jewishness.” His death had signaled the end of an era, Dr. Goldmann said.
Other speakers were Sir Simon Marks, noted British philanthropist, and president of the World Committee for the Welsmann Memorial; Ambassador Abba S. Eban of Israel; and Abraham Feinberg, president of the American Committee for the Institute, Sir Simon Marks, after reviewing the period of his friendship of over forty years with the late President, said that the Chains Weizmann Memorial set up by the Israel Government and Jewish Agency at Rehovoth would be “a center of pilgrimage and inspiration for generations to come. “
The audience adopted with acclaim a statement read by Dewey D. Stone, board chairman of the American Committee for the Institute, pledging the creation of a center of science and culture in Israel incorporating the Weizmann Institute of Science, in fulfillment of Dr. Weizmann’s aims. Meyer W. Weisgal, chairman of the executive council of the Weizmann Institute, announced the nomination of the Institute’s first three Louis Lipsky Exchange Fellows. These were Prof. Charles D. Coryell, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dr. Gerald Estrin, of the Institute of Advanced Study of Princeton, N. J., and Dr. David Ginsburg, of the Weizmann Institute at Rehovoth, who is going to Oxford University, England.
Beethoven’s “Eroica,” the late President’s favorite symphonic Work, was played by the N. B. C. Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. Miss Jennie Tourel sang a lamentation from “Jeremiah” and Ravel’s “Kaddish. “
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