Fifty thousand people participated Sunday in the funeral of Rabbi Meier Shapiro, the famed rabbi of Lublin, who died Friday at the age of forty-six after a short illness. Rabbi Shapiro, founder of the Yeshiva “Chochma Lublin,” had been a member of the Polish Sejm from 1923 to 1927.
Six thousand Hebrew school pupils, a hundred rabbis, two hundred representatives of the Jewish community, representatives of Polish villages and rabbinical institutions all over Poland, the district governor, the mayor of the city and military authorities were present at the services.
The burial took place after sunset by the light of torches. The youngest student present recited the Kaddish, the traditional prayer for the dead, since Rabbi Shapiro died childless and had no son to recite the prayer for his soul.
Those present for the services contributed the sum of forty thousand zlotys for the maintenance of the rabbinical institution at Lublin which Rabbi Shapiro had founded and had been closely associated with.
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.
