“Bialik was the uncrowned intellectual head of our people,” Rabbi Samuel Wohl, chairman of the National Council of the League for Labor Palestine, declared in an address at a memorial meeting held for the poet at Wise Center. Rabbi Wohl and Rabbi David Sherman, of Boston, were the principal speakers. Dr. Morris Schulzinger presided. Bialik’s poems were read in Hebrew, Yiddish and English. Cantor Emil Rosen, of the Avondale Synagogue, and his choir conducted the memorial services, during the course of which they rendered musical versions of Bialik poems.
Rabbi Sherman declared that “Bialik is the great modern Hebrew classic. But unlike most classics, whose lot it is to be highly praised and rarely read, Bialik is the best known and most widely quoted of all Hebrew poets. Whatever else may divide them, all Jews are at one in their appreciation of Bialik.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.