Funeral services for Oscar S. Straus, philanthropist and diplomat and the first Jew in the United States cabinet, who died Monday at his home. 1010 Fifth Avenue, in his seventy-sixth year, will be held today at 10 A. M. in Temple Beth-El. Fifth Avenue and Seventy-sixth Street. They will be conducted by Dr. Stephen S. Wise, rabbi of the Free Synagogue. George Foster Peabody, who was a friend of Mr. Straus in boyhood, will speak at the service. Burial will be in the family vault in Bath-El Cemetery Salem Fields, Queens.
The passing of Oscar Straus was mourned throughout the nation. Many messages of condolence were addressed to his family. Leaders in every walk of life paid tribute to his memory.
In his telegram to Mrs. Straus. President Coolidge said: “News of the death of your distinguished husband was a great shock. As Minister and later as Ambassador to Turkey as Secretary of Commerce and Labor and as a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague he rendered unselfish service. His contributions and devotion to the public welfare and to humanity will remain as an example to others. Please accept my sincere sympathy.”
Tributes were paid to Mr. Straus by the following:
LOSS TO NATION, SAYS HEAVER
Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce–“The death of Oscar Straus comes as a great shock to all his friends. They were legion. I am proud to have been one of them. He had the rarest gift of making friends and keeping their close affection, and all over the world they will mourn his passing. His was a long and fine career of public service, and in his death the public life of our nation has suffered irreparable loss.”
Charles G. Dawes, Vice President. “The death of Mr. Straus removes from our national life a true American. The whole span of his seventy-five years was marked by qualities which we all like to feel are typically American. and America is better for Mr. Straus’s having come here and lived here.”
Chief Justice Taft of the United States Supreme Court — “I am very sorry to know that Mr. Straus is dead. He and I were for four years in President Roosevelt’s Cabinet and then, when I became President. I sent him to be Ambassador to Turkey. He had been there before, as Minister, under Cleveland. He made a very excellent Ambassador and he made a very excellent head of the Department of Commerce and Labor. He and I were together and very active in the League to Enfroce Peace, and we had a great many aims in common. He was always a valuable man in the community and I am sorry he is gone.”
Frank B. Kellog, Secretary of State. — “I have known Mr. Straus for many years, and his death is a great shock to me. As Ambassador of the United States, member of the Hague Tribunal and public spirited citizen his work has been characterized by a high devotion to duty and by a spirit of the highest patriotism. The country will sincerely mourn his loss.”
GOV. SMITH GRIEVED
Governor Smith. — “I was grieved to learn of the sudden death of Oscar S. Straus. Both the State and the nation lose a citizen whose life is an example to all Americans. Coming to America in childhood as a Jewish immigrant. Mr. Straus rose to eminence by a devotion to the ideals of his race and to the ideals of American citizenship. His diplomatic service is so well known that it needs no comment. He is perhaps best known for his social and philanthropic work. I extend my personal sympathy to the members of his family and his legion of friends.”
Bishop William T. Manning — “Oscar Straus’s death is a loss to this city and to our country. His fine character and public services won him a high place in the esteem of his fellow countrymen. He will be gratefully remembered for his breadth of vision, his high ideals and devotion to the public welfare.”
Cardinal Hayes — “Our city and our nation may well lament the passing from our midst of Oscar S. Straus. His long and useful life will hallow his memory for many a decade as an ornament to his race as an honor to American citizenship and as an inspiration to a fine conception of public service, all combined with an unfailing sympathetic understanding of his fellow man.”
Elihn Root — “I deeply regret Oscar Straus’s death. I have known him for a great many years very well, and valued his friendship very much. He was a most public spirited citizen, very able and unselfish a kind and noble character. He had a most useful life. His death is a great loss to the country.”
Henry Morgenthau, former Ambassador to Turkey. “It is greatly to be regretted that a career like Oscar Straus’s has ended and that the would be deprived of the benefit of his large experience and profound wisdom Oscar Straus was over ready to use his versatile talent for the benefit of all people and all roof causes. He has been a beacon fight to many or its and in the future surely will be an illustrious example of whom a man of honest purpose and brand ### can accomplish in his life. ### were a fine diplomat a ### administrator a delighted and communing ### a successful mediator and above all the real same that ### predefined every last themes upon him.”
Dr. Lee K. Frankel — “Oscar Straus will probably be best remembered in connection with his career as Ambassador to Turkey and as the Secretary of Commerce and Labor in the cabinet of President Rooserch. In both of these positions he gave conspicuous service, as he did later in his efforts to settle industrial disputes. I personally feel that when a true appraisal of his activities is made, emphasis will be laid on his researches into religious liberty. His book on Roger Williams published in the 90’s, was epoch making. His life was typical of his belief in religious and personal freedom. America meant to him the country where each person had the opportunity for self-expression. I always admired his fearlessness and courage in the expression of his personal opinion, and in particular, the soundness of his judgment.”
Ludwig Vogelstein, chairman of the Executive Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. — “In the death of Oscar Straus American Jewry loses one of its most prominent and faithful sons, who in his long career of service to his country and his fellowmen has always brought honor to the Jewish name.
“Coming from a family which cherished high ideals, he devoted himself in addition to his extensive professional work, to the uplift of the standards of the Jewish people here and abroad. He was a loyal and faithful member of Temple Beth El. one of the synagogues belonging to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, and at all times rendered service to the Reform movement in America.
“Mr. Straus had the distinction of serving the United States under four Presidents, and won particular fame as Ambassador to Turkey and as Secretary of Labor. In all his positions he showed himself a loyal and faithful son of Israel. Yet he never hesitated to demand full protection for Christian mission-establishments as well as for the institutions of his co-religionists.
“The Jews of America, and particularly the liberal element which he espoused, have suffered a great loss through the death of Mr. Oscar Straus. His great personality, his prestige, his wise counsel and his unselfish devotion and willingness to serve will be missed even more by us than by his fellow citizens of different faith. The memory of his life must inevitably be a blessing to mankind.”
Tributes also were paid by organizations in which Mr. Straus was interested. Among them were the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, of which Mr. Straus was a founder; the United Jewish Campaign Committee and the National Civic Federation. John F. Gilchrist, Chairman of the Transit Commission, sent a message to Mrs. Straus conveying the sympathy of the Commissioners, and praising Mr. Straus’s interest in municipal matters. Tribute was also paid the late American Jewish statesman by Curtis F. Wilbur, Secretary of the Navy, Nicholas Longworth, speaker of the House, James W. Gerard, former Ambassador to Germany, Dwight F. Davis, Secretary of War, Chauncey M. Depew, George B. Cortelyou, fellow member with Mr. Straus in the Roosevelt Cabinet, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University, Mayor James J. Walker. Adolph Lewisohn and Samuel Untermeyer.
Mr. Straus’s work in behalf of international cooperation was extolled in a resolution adopted by the League of Nations Non-Partisan Association.
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.
