American Jewry, joined by city and state officials, and leaders of the American bar, paid its last tribute yesterday to Louis Marshall. Four thousand men and women, representing a cross section of Jewish life in New York and America, filled Temple Emanu-El. to pay their last respects, while a group equal in number, stood for two hours outside the Temple, unable to gain admittance.
A detail of one hundred police, under the personal direction of Police Commissioner Whalen, were required to handle the crowd.
The men and women who had known Louis Marshall personally and shared in his varied activities, were there; the high and mighty of New York City and State, the Lieutenant-Governor of New York, Herbert H. Lehman, former Governor Alfred E. Smith, the Chief Justice of New York Supreme Court, Benjamin N. Cardoza; the Negro leader, James Weldon Johnson; the heads of various organizations representing Jewish activities in this country and the thousands who know Louis Marshall only by virtue of his deeds. Many cities were represented, and 54 Jewish organizations.
In the beautiful Temple sat men of every shade of opinion and religious belief, Orthodox Jews in high hats and flowing beards, side by side with bareheaded leaders of the Reform wing, united by the solemnity of the exercises.
A simple religious service, consisting of three prayers, formed the only rites for Louis Marshall. The absence of all eulogies, the utter simplicity, lent a deep impressiveness to the services, which lasted one-half hour.
Promptly at ten o’clock, when the services began, the honorary pallbearers marched up a side aisle to the Beth El Chapel, where the body of Louis Marshall had reposed since its return from Zurich, Monday, on the “Leviathan,” filing past it in silent tribute.
The figures of Dr. Cyrus Adler. President of the Jewish Theological Seminary, wearing a skull cap, and Rabbi M. S. Margulies, President of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States, with his high hat and flowing white beard, stood out.
At the first strains of Handel’s “Largo,” the casket, covered with a blanket of red roses, was lifted to the shoulders of ten Jewish members of the New York police, members of the Shomrim Society, who served as active pall bearers. Walking two abreast, with bowed heads, the honorary pall bearers led the procession to the altar of the main temple. Behind them, black robed, the three ministers of the Temple, Rabbi Samuel Schulman leading, Rabbi H. G. Enclow and Rabbi Nathan Krass together, immediately preceding the coffin.
The entire audience stood as the cortege proceeded, the police stationed in the Temple, in stiff salute. A solemn silence pervaded the assemblage, broken only by the shuffling tread of the pall bearers.
Before the altar which Louis Marshall had presented to the Temple in memory of his wife and parents, on the rostrum from which he was to have delivered the dedicatory address of the still uncompleted Temple, of which he was the President, the sealed casket
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was placed. A blanket of roses and a wreath to one side were its only decorations. At the request of the family, no floral offerings were sent by organizations.
Rabbi H. G. Enelow and Rabbi Samuel Schulman conducted the services at the altar. Rabbi Enelow recited Psalms 90 and 91. Rabbi Schulman, beginning in Hebrew with a special prayer for the dead, ended with the recitation of the 23rd Psalm in English. These and a musical program constituted the only services at the Temple. The choir of Temple Emanu-El, under the direction of Lazare Zaminsky, together with a symphony orchestra, accompanied by the organ, rendered the musical part. Following Rabbi Enelow’s prayer, the choir sang “O Lord, What Is Man,” set to traditional music. Miss Amy Ellerman was the soloist and Gottfried Federlein, the organist.
Mendelssohn’s “Funeral March” concluded the exercises in the Temple. With the honorary pallbearers lined up as a guard of honor, the coffin was carried to the waiting hearse by the Shomrim.
Hundreds of automobiles were in the funeral procession to Salem Fields, Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, where interment took place beside the body of Mr. Marshall’s wife. An automobile filled with flowers, tributes from members of the family, followed the hearse.
Rabbi Nathan Krass, who delivered the prayer at the cemetery, broke down during the recitation of the Kaddish. Many wept as the body was lowered into the grave. As a last farewell, the mourners circled the grave, throwing flowers on the casket.
Mr. Marshall is survived by three sons and one daughter.
The following organizations were represented at the services:
American Jewish Committee; Jewish Theological Seminary; Guggenheimer, Untermyer & Marshall; Syracuse University; New York State College of Forestry; Association for the Protection of Adirondacks; New York County Lawyers’ Association; Federation for Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies; Joint Distribution Committee; Jewish Welfare Board; Jewish Theological Seminary, faculty and student representatives; Brooklyn Federation; Israel-Zion Hospital of Brooklyn; New York Section National Council of Jewish Women; 92nd St. Branch Y. M. H. A.; Educational Alliance; World Musical and Theatrical Guild; Junior Federation; International Order Brith Abraham; Jewish Institute of Religion; Brooklyn Jewish Ministers’ Association; American Jewish Congress; Zionist Organization of America; America’s Good-Will Union; Jewish Education Association; Temple Ansche Chesed; National Association for Advancement of Colored People; Federation of Jewish Women; New York State Federation of Sisterhoods; Central Jewish Institute; Central Jewish Institute Women’s Auxiliary; United Jewish Campaign; Brooklyn Jewish Centre; Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society; Beth Abraham Home for Incurables; Jewish Centre of New York, West 36th St.; Uptown Talmud Torah; United Palestine Appeal; United Jewish Campaign. New York office; Congregation Rodeph Sholom; Deborah Jewish Consumptive Relief Society; Hebrew Free Loan Association; Society for Advancement of Judaism; National Women’s League. United Synagogue of America; Institutional Synagogue; Cloak and Dressmakers’ Union; Jewish Agricultural Society; Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America; United Roumanian Jews of America; Central Synagogue; Jewish Welfare Board; German Jewish Centre; Hebrew Children’s Home; Jewish National Fund; Sephardic Jewish Community.
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.
