Dr. Z. P. Chajes, Chief Rabbi of Vienna, Dies; Leaders Eulogyze Noted Scholar

Won Distinction For Achievements in Field of Jewish Learning: Leaders Pay Tribute to Noted Scholar (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The news of the death of Dr. Z. P. Chajes caused deep mooring among Jewish scholars, Zionists and among his many admirers.

“It is with deepest sorrow that I learn of the death of the Chief Rabbi of Vienna, Rabbi Z. P. Chajes,” Dr. Stephen S. Wise declared. “Dr. Chajes was for so many years one of my dear friends, that I cannot, at this moment, bring myself to write an objective appraisal of the man. But this is true,–he was one of the great Jews of his generation. His scholarship was vast and accurate. His His love for his people, their life, their traditions, their learning was his distinction. I know of no Jew of his generation, who gave himself more completely, with more utter unselfishness and great-heartedness, to every interest of his people, its life, its language, its land. He loved and served them all.

“It was only yesterday that his dearest friend in America, Dr. George Alexander Kohut, and I were considering how we might bring him to the Jewish Institute of Religion for at least a year, or a part of a year. Of the Institute he has from the beginning been a sympathetic and helpful counselor. Not only the Jewry of Vienna and Austria, but world-Israel is bereft by the passing of this sage, with incredible learning, and with the heart of a child! His place was Palestine. There he should have lived and taught and led, for there his heart was. His dust, too, must be gathered up and laid to rest in the land which he understood and loved and served as few men,” Dr. Wise said.

Dr. George Alexander Kohut said:

“The passing of Dr. Z. H. Chajes, Chief Rabbi of Austria, gives to me a sense of personal loss especially as we were devoted friends for the past decade and have planned together important work for the furtherance of Jewish learning.

“In honor of his fiftieth anniversary, I established the Chajes Foundation which has just now issued two volumes. No doubt scholars will respond to an appeal to bring out a memorial volume containing learned papers and devoted to his memory.

“His greatest achievement, quite apart from his early career in Italy, where he served as Professor of Hebrew at the State University, was the establishment of a Jewish Instate of Pedagogy in Vienna which has rallied hundreds of young people to the cause of Jewish education. It is due to Dr. Chajes’ efforts that they remained loyal to Jewish ideals during the war and since then and that under his inspiring leadership not only his immediate followers but the entire Jewish world achieved something of the ideal for which he has given all his days.”