Impressive ceremonies marked today the reburial on a Carmel hill of the remains of the late Baron Edmond de Rothschild–known as “Hanadiv Hayaduah” (The Famous Philanthropist)–and his wife, the Baroness Adelaide, which were brought from France in accordance with his will. Baron de Rothschild died in Paris in 1934.
The colorful, solemn ceremonies lasting more than 24 hours, culminated this morning when a unit of Marines and a group of police cadets took up the two biers to place them in the mausoleum built on the site chosen by the Baron himself–a site overlooking from a 300-foot eminence many of the very fields and colonies which the Baron’s benefactions had made possible.
The ceremonies got under way yesterday morning when the government frigate, The Mivtach, carrying the coffins from France, entered Haifa harbor. As heavy showers beat on the waters, every ship in the port lowered its flag to halfmast. A 19-gun salute was fired. The Baron’s own insignia, that had flown from the Mivtach mainmast, was lowered. The coffins were taken by hearse to Haifa Town Hall.
50, 000 PASS COFFINS; PRESIDENT, CABINET ATTEND FUNERAL
Through the night, the bodies lay in state. Fifty thousand men and women passed by the coffins atop a platform draped in green and black. This morning members of the Rothschild family, who had come here from Europe, took their places at the bier. The Government was represented by President Ben Zvi and the full Cabinet led by Premier Moshe Sharett. Former Prime Minister David Ben Gurion and his wife had come up from their Negev retreat at Sdeh Boker. The Mayor of Haifa led the procession. Seventy-six-year-old Baron James de Rothschild, son of the deceased Baron, with tears in his eyes and in choked voice, recited the Kaddish.
The funeral convoy started for the burial place–now named “Ramat Hanadiv. ” Along the entire route, streets and highways were decorated with the national flag at halfmast. There was weeping as the corteges passed the main streets of two colonies–Zichron Yaakov, named after the Baron’s father, and Benyamina, bearing the Baron’s own Hebrew given name. There are veteran colonists in those settlements who had come in personal contact with the Baron, had benefited personally from his help.
Atop a platform near the mausoleum, the coffins were placed at the spot the Baron had himself chosen for his final resting place. Baron James again recited the Kaddish, standing between the two coffins, while all present stood at attention around him. Representatives of 46 settlements established on land acquired by the late Baron filed into the mausoleum. Each man placed a small sack with soil from his settlement as a bed for the coffins. The biers were lowered. A cantor and choir chanted El Moleh. The will of Hanadiv Hayaduah had been fulfilled.
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.
