Tribute was paid to the memory of the late Baron Edmond de Rothschild, philanthropist and father of Jewish colonization in Palestine, by James C. McDonald, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Judge Julian W. Mack and other notables at the Hotel Astor Wednesday night.
Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the Jewish National Fund, under whose auspices the assembly was held, announced that Mr. McDonald’s name will be the first to be inscribed in a special volume of the Golden Book of the Jewish National Fund, dedicated to the memory of Baron de Rothschild. Mr. McDonald is High Commissioner of the League of Nations for the settlement of refugees from Hitlerism.
“Of course this is no time to engage in political discussion, and much less for me, a non-Jew, to venture into the field of controversial issue about anything that has to do with Palestine,” Mr. McDonald said, “but I am sure that all my Jewish friends will agree that the ideals that Baron Edmond has of the relations between the peoples in that area are the ideals that ought to be.
“I, as a non-Jew, as one whose official work brings him in contact with governments in many parts of the world, and although having no official or direct relations with Palestine, yet know something about it; and I say with all sincerity that I hope, for the sake of the Jewish National Home, for the sake of the expectations which all of you have, with an increasing fervor, that this ideal of Baron Edmond may be realized in practice.
“For surely there is nothing fundamentally in conflict between Jew and Arab. Surely these two great peoples supplement and complement each other.”
Rabbi Wise eulogized the philanthropist as one who “will live in the lore and in the love of his people.”
“He sought not glory, but it claimed him, this kindly, simple, far-seeing Jew forever to be enshrined in the unfading remembrance of his people,” Dr. Wise said.
“With his millions and an unprecedented generosity he did much to set the Jewish millions free.”
Judge Mack declared the Baron was a philanthropist “in the finest sense.”
“In all his life work,” Judge Mack said, “there was uppermost in his mind the feeling that he was but doing his duty as a Jew in sharing with his less fortunate brethren.”
Others who spoke were Mrs. Edward Jacobs, president of Hadassah; Rabbi Wolf Gold, president of the Mizrachi; Joseph Kramer, president Order Sons of Zion, and Chaim Greenberg, representative of the Zion-Socialist Labor Party. M. Moenelclaey, French consul, attended the services and Cantor David Roitman chanted the memorial prayer.
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.
