Funeral services will be held here at Temple Rodeph Sholom, Tuesday, for Ben Hecht, American-Jewish author, journalist, playwright, and stormy petrel in the Zionist movement, who died suddenly here yesterday at the age of 70. In addition to a vast output of journalistic writings going back to 1910, Mr. Hecht was the author of 26 books, 20 plays for the stage, 70 motion picture plays and hundreds of short stories.
In 1940, Mr. Hecht had helped found the Emergency Committee to Save the Jews of Europe. During the war years and after that era, he worked closely in this country with the Irgun Zvai Leumi forces. Only a year ago, he published a book, “Perfidy, ” which assailed the world Zionist leadership, including the late Israeli President, Dr. Chaim Weizmann. He continued until his death to blame the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt for alleged failure to help save European Jewry from the Hitlerian holocaust.
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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.
