The funeral services for the late Dr. Maximilian Heller, Rabbi Emeritus of Cougregation Temple Sinai, held yesterday afternoon at the congregation’s new house of worship, were attended by nearly two thousand people who filled the auditorium, overflowing into the aisles, the balcony and at the entrances. Representatives of all sections of the community, Jewish as well as non-Jewish, were present to pay tribute to the late rabbi.
Six rabbis participated in the services-Rabbi Emil W. Leipziger of Touro Synagogue, Dr. Mendel Silber of the Gates of Prayer Congregation, Rabbi Moses H. Goldberg of the Orthodox Chevra Tillim. Rabbi David Eichman of the Jewish Federation and Rabbi Louis Binstock, successor of Dr. Heller at Temple Sinai. Rabbi Binstock pronounced the eulogy, the other clergymen reciting prayers and reading psalms.
In his address Rabbi Binstock stressed the qualities of Dr. Heller as a man among men, as well as scholar, teacher, pastor and leader.
“I would rather you remember him as a sun glass that gathered the bright beams of the light of understanding and intelligence and focused them to a point where they rendered most good. His mind was like a sun glass shedding light into the darkest of corners, bringing comfort and hope to thousands of persons. Like a sun glass drawing came the affection from a limitless well within. His family was all of humanity, his house was all the world.”
The funeral procession was a mile long. The bier was draped with a blanket of flowers sent by the congregation, although the family of the deceased made public the late rabbi’s often-expressed desire that instead of flowers at the grave gifts to charity be made at his death. The temple platform was decorated with flowers. All the surviving members of the family were present, his widow, formerly Miss Ida Marks of New Orleans, his son James, who occupies the pulpit of B’nai Jeshurun Congregation, Cincinnati, O; his son, Isaac A., attorney of New Orleans, and a daughter, Mrs. George Cohen of New York.
At the grave a great concourse of people heard the simple service climaxed with the Kaddish, read by Rabbi Binstock. The pallbearers were Monte M. Lemann, Jack Bloom, S. Walter Stern, Gen. Allison, Owen Harold Weil, Joseph Trumm, E. E. Lesitzky, Lewis Scherck, Isaac Alcus, Felix Kahn, Joseph Dinkelspiel and Isaac Harris of Dallas.
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.
