Dr. Max J. Kohler was eulogized yesterday by Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson at funeral services conducted at Temple Emanu-El before several hundred representative Jews.
The noted jurist, author and protector of the rights of immigrants and Jews died Tuesday at Long Lake, N. Y., following a short illness. He passed away from a heart attack at 6# Burial took place at Beth-El Cemetery, Cypress Hills.
“He will be missed at a time,” the Rabbi declared, “when Israel needs great minds and hearts the most.”
ILLUSTRIOUS ANCESTRY
The services, which were held in the Beth-El Chapel of the Temple, were filled with references to the memories and traditions of the Kohler family, for the chapel is dedicated to the father of the deceased, the late Dr. Kaufman Kohler, who was president of the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati when Dr. Goldenson was a rabbinical student there. In the chapel there is a permanent memorial light for the late Dr. David Einhorn, grandfather of Dr. Kohler.
Alluding to the deeds and lives of these two ancestors, the Rabbi declared that Dr. Kohler was not content to be the son of a great father and a descendant of a noble grandfather. “In his life,” he said, “we find the same cherished tradition of scholarship and service which we have found in the lifetimes of both father and grandfather.”
Dr. Kohler was not a student for the sake of learning, but a man who desired to know the law of the universe and who wished to help all mankind, particularly the weak and the humble. Dr. Kohler’s services to immigrants were pointed out as proof of his altruism.
MEMORY OF HIS DEEDS
Quoting the Biblical quotation of Jonathan, “Thou will be missed. Thy seat will be empty,” Dr. Goldenson stated that Dr. Kohler, too, will be very much missed, and that his chair will always be empty, but that the memory of his deeds will enable this and other generations to produce men and women who will carry on the tradition of Israel, into the spiritual and social activities of the every-day world.
Among those present were Felix M. Warburg, chairman of the United Jewish Appeal; Mrs. Rebekah Kohut, widow of Dr. George Alexander Kohut; Morris Rothenberg, president of the Zionist Organization of America; Dr. Henry Keller, president of the Jewish Academy of Arts and Sciences; Miss Sarah Schottenfeld, of the National Council of Jewish Women; Philip Cowen, secretary of the Manhattan Washington Lodge, B’nai B’rith, and Oscar Leonard, of the American Jewish Congress.
MANY GROUPS PRESENT
At the services and burial there were many groups from leading Jewish societies. Some of these were The Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America, the Baron de Hirsch Fund, the Congregation Emanu-El Men’s Club, the Jewish Academy of Arts and Sciences, the New York section of the National Council of Jewish Women, B’nai B’rith, and the American Jewish Historical Society.
Isidore Hershfield, counsel of the Washington Bureau of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America, declared yesterday that the death of Dr. Max J. Kohler is “a distinct loss to American Jewry and to all friends of tolerance and liberal views. To me also it is a personal loss.”
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