“The satisfaction in my life has been the consciousness that I have done something in obedience to the spirit of Theodor Herzl to make Jews stand up a little straighter and to think of their Jewishness not as a disgrace to be shirked or an affliction to be averted but as a privilege to be cherished,” declared Rabbi Stephen S. Wise here last night before a crowd which turned out to honor his sixtieth birthday.
Jews joined with Christians in paying homage to Dr. Wise at the Boston Opera House. Governor Ely, Mayor Mansfield and presidents of eight universities attended. Dr. Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, played with twenty musicians in honor of the occasion.
Tributes to Dr. Wise were paid by Dr. Samuel A. Eliot, son of the late president of Harvard; George W. Coleman, Rabbi Harry Levi, Dr. Clarence Skinner, Judge J. J. Kaplan, Mrs. Jennie L. Barron, Dr. Payson Smith and Dr. John Haynes Holmes.
“We believe that we celebrate today,” Dr. Wise declared, “the deathless faith of the Jew in the immortality of the Jewish people.”
Henry Penn, chairman of the committee sponsoring the affair, opened the meeting. Samuel B. Finkel presided. Max Shulman was treasurer and Rabbi Joseph S. Shubow secretary of the commitee.
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.
