Israel today mourned the passing of Louis Lipsky, dean of American Zionists and close colleague of the late Dr. Chaim Weizmann, in formal statements by President Schneour Zalman Shazar, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, the entire Israel Cabinet, and many other Israeli leaders in the Government, the Jewish Agency and Israel public life. In a message to Elaazar Lipsky son of the late American Zionist leader, the Israel Prime Minister declared:
“My Cabinet colleagues and myself were grieved to hear of the death of your father, that great pioneer of American Zionism, gifted writer and orator, and one of the most illustrious leaders of America and Diaspora Jewry. His spirit and soul were an inseparable and harmonious combination of Judaism and Americanism. At every Jewish or Zionist gathering, Lipsky was a fountain of tradition and devotion to Jewry as if the Jewish people were his only homeland, and all his writings and speeches were imbued with the finest elements of American law, liberty and the American spirit.
“I had the privilege of knowing him 48 years ago when I was exiled from this country in 1915, and I worked with him for three years in the American Zionist movement, I also met him in Israel at Zionist Congresses and meetings, and I was always deeply impressed with the dedication to Jewry and Zionism that radiated from every fiber of his being. He has been gathered to his people in the fullness of his years but his memory will never depart from our hearts.”
SHAZAR MOURNS FALLEN LEADER; DR. VERA WEIZMANN SENDS MESSAGE
President Shazar issued a statement in which he described Mr. Lipsky as the “crown-bearer of the tradition of Zionism’s spring days” whose life had embodied the “rich fountain of youth and beauty until the last of the long days. ” Recalling their last meeting two months ago in New York, President Shazar said Mr. Lipsky was one of the greatest and noblest figures in the world Zionist movement.
In a cable to Ambassador Avraham Harman, in Washington, Mr. Shazar requested the Israel envoy to represent him at Mr. Lipsky’s funeral tomorrow, in New York, and to convey his participation in the grief of his family, the Zionist movement and American Jewry.
Dr. Vera Weizmann cabled the Lipsky family in New York: “Learned with sorrow of the death of your father who was my husband’s and my great friend. My deep sympathy to you and the whole family. “
Elychu Dobkin, acting chairman of the Jewish Agency’s Jerusalem executive, cited Mr. Lipsky’s “fifty years in the forefront of Zionist leadership in the United States and in the world, ” and said “he was a guide and teacher for two generations in Zionism and world Jewry. ” “Louis Lipsky was a courageous leader blessed with clarity of mind, a man of action, humble and devoted with all his heart to the goal he served, ” Mr, Dobkin said.
Dr. Israel Goldstein, chairman of the Keren Kayesod, said that Mr. Lipsky was America’s foremost Zionist, its oldest and most distinguished leader, and an authentic spokes man of Herzlian Zionism. He said Mr. Lipsky represented the democratic forces in American Jewish life, and played a leading role in mobilizing American public opinion behind the Balfour Declaration and the program for the Jewish State after the Second World War. He said the Keren Hayesod looked upon Mr. Lipsky as its founding father in the United States. He hailed Mr. Lipsky as the chief architect of the Zionist Organization of America, who had the universal respect of American Zionists.
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.
