The second anniversary of the death of Louis Marshall, President of the American Jewish Committee, and the outstanding leader of American Jewry, occurs to-morrow.
Mr. Marshall died in Zurich, soon after the conclusion of the Conference of the Jewish Agency Council, over which he had presided, and the news of his death came as a stunning blow to Jews all over the world. In all countries memorial meetings were held and messages poured in on the J.T.A. and the organisations with which he had been connected from leading public men and great organisations.
President Hoover sent a message to the J.T.A. expressing his “grief at the death of my friend Mr. Louis Marshall, whose eminent services to law, government, conciliation and philanthropy remain of enduring value to this country. His Jewish brethren”, he went on, “will long and gratefully remember his successful labours, promoting mutual respect and goodwill amongst all races, but above all, he will linger in the memory as a lovable man and a loyal friend”.
Lord Reading, the Foreign Secretary in the new National Government, said to the J.T.A. : I am greatly grieved by the death of Mr. Louis Marshall, whose loss, especially at this moment, is of the greatest concern to the Community. His loss will be felt not only in America, but everywhere, for his stalwart championship and his fine character, and the late Lord Melchett spoke of his “profound grief at the death of my friend and colleague, Mr. Louis Marshall. His memory will always be with us,” he said, “as that of a tender and noble-hearted Jew, loved by all who knew him”.
The General Council of the Zionist Organisation was in session in London when the news of his death arrived, and the President, Mr. Leo Motzkin, suspended the meeting to speak of “the terrible news of the death of one of the greatest Jews of our generation. Mr. Louis Marshall”, he said, “occupies a great page in the history of Jewry. It is our task to immortalise his name”.
Mr. Felix M. Warburg, one of his closest associates, said: “He and I both came to New York about 35 years ago, and ever since I have had the privilege of enjoying first his acquaintance, then his co-operation, then his counsel, and then his friendship, which ripened into the most devoted intimacy. A beautiful life has come to its end. He has erected a monument in the hearts of his countrymen that will endure for a long time”, and Mr. Julius Rosenwald, another of his close friends, who has since established the Louis Marshall Memorial Fund at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, said: “This nation is poorer to-day because one of her great men has gone. And we are all stricken. He was to me a wise counsellor and guide. I am heartbroken”.
Mr. Marshallis body was brought to America for interment, and thousands of people streamed past as it lay in state at the Temple Emanu-El in New York, of which he had been President, and over four thousand filled the Temple for the funeral service, and hundreds of cars carried his friends and admirers to the cemetery where he was lowered into the ground at the side of the body of his wife.
THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY AND LORD MELCHETT’S TRIBUTE
A year ago, on the first anniversary of Mr. Marshall’s death, the late Lord Melchett was in New York, about to leave on his return to London, where he arrived already in the early stages of his fatal illness, and he commemorated the first anniversary of the death of his co-Chairman of the Jewish Agency Council in a statement released through the Allied Jewish Campaign, in which, recalling that he had known him best in connection with their joint work in Palestine, both with the Joint Palestine Survey Commission, of which Lord Melchett was Chairman, and in the economic development of Palestine, as well as in the construction of the Jewish Agency, he said, “Marshall may be said to have died on the field of endeavour. No one will forget the last great speech he made at Zurich at the Agency meeting when, already sore stricken by the disease which so shortly carried him to his grave, he thrilled us all by the lucid, clear, and forceful manner of his presentation and the fervour of his utterance. Looking back over our troubled path of events of the last year, political and economic, I have often regretted that we no longer have his clear counsel, his courageous and steadfast help to assist us. He set a great example which will never be forgotten and handed down a great tradition which inspired us all for the future.
“The great work of Louis Marshall in connection with all matters affecting the Jewish community, and more especially the services he rendered in the cause of the Jewish minorities in Central and Eastern Europe, stand for ever as evidence of what can be achieved by a man of courage, character, ability and endless persistence and patience, and of the respect he engendered in all those who came in contact with him for his fearless appeal to justice and moral rectitude, which enabled him to achieve so much”.
Messages of commemoration were also issued on the occasion by Mr. David M. Bressler and Mr. Morris Rothenberg, the Chairmen of the Allied Jewish Campaign.
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.
