A public memorial service has been scheduled for Edith Rosenwald Stern, a leading New Orleans philanthropist and leading campaign for Israel to which she contributed funds throughout her life, who died in her home here last Thursday after a long illness. She was 85 years old. Funeral services were held Friday.
The Stern Fund, of which she was a founder and which is based in New York, distributes as much as $500,000 a year to encourage political action and social change. Mrs. Stern was the daughter of the late Julius Rosenwald of Chicago who helped to finance Sears Roebuck in its early years. A leading philanthropist, he imbued his children with such views, Mrs. Stern’s brother, William Rosenwald, is a founder of the United Jewish Appeal.
For more than 50 years after she first arrived here, Mrs. Stern supported often unpopular liberal causes. With her husband, she was a founder of the Dillard University, a predominantly Black college in New Orleans. Her home, Longue Vue, a 48-room mansion, which she opened to the public before her death, is now a museum.
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