Mr. Julius Rosenwald was buried this morning in Rose Fill Cemetery in Chicago. The funeral was secret and strictly private. Apart from Rabbi Louis M. Mann, of the Sinai Temple in Chicago, who officiated, only the members of Mr. Rosenwald’s immediate family were present.
(The same privacy prevailed at the funeral of Mr. Julius Rosenwald’s first wife, which took place in the same cemetery in May 1929. Rabbi Louis M. Mann also officiated on that occasion, and only the members of the family and a few intimate friends were present).
The news of Mr. Rosenwald’s death has caused widespread grief and mourning throughout the country. All the newspapers publish long obituaries and appreciations. Chicago, the city in which Mr. Rosenwald lived almost all his life and where he built up his vast business, is showing profound sorrow at the passing of one of its greatest citizens.
Messages of sympathy and tributes to Mr. Rosenwald have been received by, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from many leaders in American and Jewish life, headed by President Hoover. Among the other messages are those from Mr. Roosevelt, the Governor of New York State; Mr. Herbert H. Lehman, the Lieut. Governor of New York State; Mr. Alfred Smith, former Governor of New York State, who was the Democratic candidate for the Presidency against President Hoover; Professor Nicholas Murray Butler, the President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and of the Carnegie Foundation; Mr. Clarence Darrow, the famous lawyer; Mr. Nahum Sokolov, the President of the Zionist World Organisation and the Jewish Agency; Mr. Felix M. Warburg, Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee of America; Dr. Cyrus Adler, President of the American Jewish Committee and Chairman of the Administrative Committee of the Jewish Agency; Judge Julian W. Mack, the Honorary Chairman of the Zionist Organisation of America, and many other prominent men in Jewish and general life in America.
Mr. Rosenwald, who was reputed to be the richest Jew in the world, is estimated to have left between three hundred and six hundred million dollars.
During his lifetime it is estimated that Mr. Rosenwald gave away over 55 million dollars for charitable, educational and religious purposes.
There is no indication of Mr. Rosenwald’s intentions with regard to his will and it is not known whether he has made any big bequests to charities. There is still in existence the 35 million dollar Julius Rosenwald Fund for Promoting Human Welfare, which he has stipulated must be spent, principal and interest, within 25 years of his death.
When Mrs. Rosenwald died in 1929 she left an estate of over one million dollars, but although she was a noted charitable worker, she made no charitable bequests in her will, stating that she relied upon her husband and children, to whom she left the entire estate, to carry out her wishes with regard to charities, knowing that they shared her own views.
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.
