Louis Lipsky, dean of American Zionism, who died last Monday at the age of 86, was laid to rest this weekend at Mount Ararat Cemetery, in suburban Long Island after simple services at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in this city. More than 1, 500 Zionist and other Jewish leaders from all over the country and abroad, including Israel, attended the rites.
The Government of Israel was officially represented by Ambassador Avraham Harman; Michael S. Comay, Ambassador to the United Nations; and Katriel Katz, Consul-General in New York. The eulogy was delivered by Moshe Sharett, Israel’s former Prime Minister and ex-Foreign Minister, now the chairman of the Jewish Agency’s executive.
Among the many messages of condolence was one from Mrs. Golda Meir, Israeli Foreign Minister, who stated that the passing of such “an outstanding and devoted leader of Zionism” as Mr. Lipsky constitute “a profoundly grieved and tragic loss.” Noting that she had had the “special privilege” of knowing him personally, she stated that his death was “also a personal loss.” “From my first steps in Zionism,” she declared,” I admired him greatly for all that he was and exemplified.”
Mr. Sharett, in his eulogy, hailed Mr. Lipsky as “a celebrated, lifelong champion of one of the greatest causes of liberty and Justice of our age, the vindication of which it was given to him to see in his own lifetime.” Speaking of the departed leader as “the venerable dean of American Zionism,” Mr. Sharett said “his high culture, personal integrity, political courage, strength of conviction, firm stand were inestimable assets for the movement which he led and inspired.”
“His was the rare combination of the supreme qualities both of mind and character which makes up a truly outstanding personality and serves as a shining example to so many contemporaries,” Mr. Sharett stated. “He was endowed with yet another treasure–his aesthetic sense, which opened for him the world of letters and of art and became so ennobling a feature of his spiritual creativity and his very life. The disappearance from the American scene of such a towering figure makes one look around for an even remotely approximate successor.”
A “personal farewell” was spoken at the services by Meyer W. Weisgal, chairman of the executive council of the Weizmann Institute of Science at Rehovoth, Israel, and a close friend of Mr. Lipsky, who had come here for the funeral. “I have traveled 6, 000 miles,” he said, “to bid farewell to my friend, teacher and spiritual leader. More than any other man in the Zionist movement, he embodied aristocracy of spirit.
“Everything in the world of literature, art, drama had meaning for him,” Mr. Weisgal stressed. “But it was in the renaissance of the Jewish people that he saw the greatest drama of all, and for which he abandoned his personal world as a creative writer. In him, there was no inner conflict between his dedicated Americanism and his dedicated Zionism. In him, both found their perfect union.”
Rabbi Ira Einstein, of the Jewish Reconstructionist, and Rabbi Joachim Prinz, of Temple Bnai Abraham, Newark, N. J., conducted the services. Cantor Moshe Nathanson read excerpts from the Psalms and recited the El Maleh Rachamim.
(In Washington, Sen. Kenneth B. Keating, New York Republican, made a statement on the Senate floor eulogizing Mr. Lipsky, stating that “the American Zionist movement lost one of its most distinguished elder statesmen and foremost leaders.” Sen. Keating said he was “privileged to know Mr. Lipsky personally. He was a native of my home town of Rochester, and those who have followed his career have developed through the years an ever increasing respect and admiration for him as an individual, and for the magnificent job he did in furthering a cause he held so dear.”)
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.
