Americans and Jews throughout the country will celebrate the sixtieth birthday of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise on March 17. In New York City a series of affairs will be given, including an anniversary service at the Free Synagogue and a luncheon for Dr. Wise’s friends and associates, culminating in a banquet at the Hotel Astor on Monday evening, March 19.
At the dinner, held under the auspices of a committee headed by Bainbridge Colby, former Secretary of State, the speakers will include Professor Albert Einstein, Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, Dr. John Haynes Holmes, Judge Julian W. Mack, Mayor LaGuardia, Rabbi Louis I. Newman and Morris Rothenberg. Proceeds will be devoted to a fund for the furthering of causes with which Dr. Wise is associated with.
Speeches will be broadcast over a national radio hook-up, enabling Jewish communities over the country celebrating his anniversary to listen in. Communities in twenty American cities have already announced that they will celebrate Rabbi Wise’s birthday. Julius L. Meier, governor of Oregon, is heading a committee arranging a celebration in Portland. Rabbi Solomon Goldman will direct the celebration in Chicago.
1,000 WILL ATTEND LUNCHEON
More than 1,000 persons, consisting of the veteran Jewish leader’s intimate friends as well as his students and associates in the various institutions with which he has been connected, will attend a luncheon on March 18 at the Hotel Biltmore. Eddie Cantor will postpone his trip to Hollywood to be present at the gathering. Frederick L. Guggenheim, chairman of the Stephen S. Wise Fund, will preside. Speakers at the luncheon will include officers of the Free Synagogue and the Jewish Institute of Religion, and Dr. Wise’s close friends.
March 17, which is the rabbi’s birthday, will be spent by Dr. Wise quietly with his family. On the following morning an anniversary service will be held in the Free Synagogue, of which he is spiritual leader. Among the speakers at the service will be Samuel Seabury, who will discuss Rabbi Wise’s part in civic affairs; Rabbi William Fineshriber, of Philadelphia, who will speak on Dr. Wise’s leadership in the American rabbinate, and a prominent Zionist leader whose name has not yet been announced. Rabbi Wise will respond. Joseph M. Levine, president of the congregation of the Free Synagogue, will preside.
Members of the committee sponsoring the banquet to Dr. Wise include Franklin P. Adams, George Gordon Battle, Rabbi Morton M. Berman, Herman Bernstein, Sol Bloom, William E. Borah, Arthur Brisbane, Morris R. Cohen, Royal S. Copeland, Samuel Dickstein, Jonah J. Goldstein, Richard Gottheil, Gustave Hartman, Horace M. Kallen, Rabbi Nathan Krass, Jacob Landau, Gov. Herbert H. Lehman, Irving Lehman, W. Kingsland Macy, George Z. Medalie, Robert Nathan, Dr. Frederick B. Robinson, David Sarnoff, Samuel Seabury, and Herbert Bayard Swope.
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