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Jewish Agency in New York Conducts Memorial Services for Kennedy

November 26, 1963
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President Kennedy was eulogized in memorial services this morning conducted by the American Section of the Jewish Agency and the staffs of other major central Zionist bodies.

Speakers were Dr. Nahum Goldmann, world president of the Jewish Agency; Dr. Emanuel Neumann, chairman of the American Section of the Jewish Agency; and Rabbi Eugene Dushinsky of the cultural department of the Jewish Agency.

Dr. Goldmann characterized the assassinated President as “a great American, a leader in the cause of the underprivileged and the oppressed, an understanding friend of the Jews, and a man who believed in Israel, and would protect it against its enemies.”

Dr. Neumann said: “We meet with anguish, overwhelmed with grief at the death of President Kennedy. His wanton murder is a shattering blow, the like of which this nation has not experienced since the assassination of the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln. John F. Kennedy’s career was as brilliant and promising as it was meteoric and short-lived. His advent seemed to usher in a new era flashing a ray of hope to a darkened world. He faced the desperate problems of our age with courage, with youthful vigor, with profound understanding, and deep sympathy for the underprivileged, the disinherited and the oppressed.”

Rabbi Dushinsky read the El Mole Rachamim, the traditional prayer for the dead.

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