Leaders in all walks of American life, spokesmen for the many and varied groups and organizations in the Jewish community and many friends and colleagues among persons of all faiths, today joined thousands of members of the public in paying their last respects to Rabbi Stephen S. Wise who died in a Now York hospital Tuesday, at the age of 75.
When the services began in Carnegie Hall this afternoon 3,200 persons were inside the Hall and another 15,000 jammed the sidewalks outside the building. President Truman was personally represented by his assistant David Niles. President Weizmann could not attend because he was indisposed, but Mrs. Weizmann, Ambassador Eliahu Elath, Consul-General Arthur Lourie, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and Mayor William O’Dwyer were present. Three hundred policemen were on duty, including an honor guard of Shomrim–members of an organization of Jews on New York’s police force.
The interment took, place at the Westchester Hills Cemetery of the Free Synagogue at Hastings-on-Eudson. A police unit escorted the cortege to the city line from where it was accompanied by State troopers.
Dr. David Petegorsky, executive director of the American Jewish Congress, delivered the eulogy. Officiating at the services were Rabbis Edward E. Klein and J.X. Cohen of the Free Synagogue, which Rabbi Wise founded and of which he was senior rabbi.
ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SENDS MESSAGE OF CONDOLENCE TO FAMILY
Messages of condolence were received by Dr. Wise’s family from Jewish communities in Argentina, Chile, Sweden, India, Poland, Mexico, San Salvador, Venezuela, Uruguay, Canada, Colombia, Tunisia, Greece, Guatemala and Switzerland.
Israeli Premier David Ben Gurion cabled the following message to Dr. Wise’s son and daughter: “The Government of Israel expresses to you its deep sympathy on the passing of Stephen Wise, first pioneer and leader of American Zionism, moral spokesman of Jewry in the New World, brave and noble fighter for human rights, selfless friend of the oppressed. His memory will never be effaced.” Messages were also received from Moshe Sharett, Israeli Foreign Minister, and Dr. Israel Goldstein, Jewish Agency Treasurer.
(At a memorial meeting called by the British section of the World Jewish Congress in London, outstanding Jewish leaders paid tribute to Dr. Wise, as well as to the late Rabbi Meir Berlin who died in Jerusalem this week, A suggestion was made that a settlement or other institution in Israel be named for Dr. Wise.)
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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.
