Lesser Ury Funeral Brings Big Gathering of Painters and Art Lovers to Berlin Jewish Cemetery: Rabbi

The Jewish cemetery at Weissensee was the scene of a great gathering to-day for the funeral of the famous Jewish painter, Lesser Ury. The Berlin Jewish Community provided a grave of honour, and the service was conducted by Rabbi Dr. Joseph Lehmann, who was a close personal friend of Ury’s. The Berlin National Gallery was represented by the Director, Privy Councillor Dr. Ludwig Justi, and the Curator, Dr. Thormaelen, and the Secessionist Art Group was represented by all the members of the Committee, and the President, Eugen Spiro, who in an address at the graveside said that Lesser Ury’s work was a milestone in the history of modern German painting.

Rabbi Lehmann spoke in his graveside address of the lonely life which the master had led, and the embitterment which had grown up in his heart because of his constant struggling for a livelihood and the means to be able to continue his painting. Nevertheless, as one who had been his friend and had known him well, he said, he could only pay a tribute to his fine character as a man and as a Jew, who in spite of adversity, had refused to be beaten, and had gone on to the end producing great works of art and had remained true to his ideals as a Jew, and as a painter of the highest idealism of the Jewish faith and the Jewish character as revealed in the Bible.