Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Jabotinsky's Funeral as Reported in the New York Times

TRIBUTE BY 12,000 PAID JABOTINSKY

They Stand Outside Chapel in Second Ave. During Funeral of Noted Zionist Leader; 200 Cantors sing ritual; Thousands Line Streets When Cortege Passes Through East Side After Service; No Eulogies Given; Many Weep as Taps Sound Military Service at Grave

Aug. 7, 1940

TRIBUTE BY 12,000 PAID JABOTINSKY; They Stand Outside Chapel in Second Ave. During Funeral of Noted Zionist Leader 

As more than 12,000 persons stood out in the street, a funeral service was held yesterday for Vladimir Jabotinsky, author, soldier and world leader of the New Zionist Organization, at the Gramercy Park Memorial Chapel, 152 Second Avenue. Mr. Jabotinsky, who died of a heart attack Saturday night at Camp Betar, Zionist youth camp at Hunter, N. Y., was unaware that his son Eri, who had been imprisoned at Acre Fortress in Palestine for nationalist activities, had been released from prison earlier that day. A Zionist holiday was declared in Palestine yesterday in memory of Mr. Jabotinsky. 

Prominent Jewish leaders and representatives of Jewish organizations and the British, Polish and Czech Consulates were among the 750 per- sons invited to the funeral service, at which Rabbis Maurice Rose of Temple Sinai, Brooklyn; Samuel Telushkin of Brooklyn, and H. S. Epstein of St. Louis, officiated. Led by Joseph Ruminsky, Jewish composer, 200 Verband cantors sang an ancient Hebrew ritual chant. 

At the request of Mr. Jabotinsky, there were no speeches, eulogies or instrumental music, based on the precedent of the funeral of Theodore Herzl, founder of modern Zionism. John H. Patterson, D. S. O., British commander of the legion Mr. Jabotinsky fought with in Palestine during the World War, was among the 150 honorary pallbearers, all close associates of Mr. Jabotinsky in his fight for a Jewish nationalist state in Palestine. Other pallbearers were Professor James G. McDonald, former High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations; James Freeman of Ottawa, president of the Canadian Zionist Organization; Colonel A. Ralph Steinberg, Past Master of B'nai B'rith; John Gunther, author; Willard G. Stanton, chairman of the American Friends of Jewish Palestine; William B. Ziff, Chicago publisher; K. B. Friedman, assistant United States District Attorney; Professor Benjamin Akzin of City College, Dr. Joseph E. Braunstein of the Menorah Home for the Aged and Infirm, Colonel Maurice Mendelsohn, past national commander of the Jewish War Veterans; Jacob Landau, editor, and Judge Jacob S. Strahl of the Municipal Court. Mayor La Guardia was represented by his secretary, Stanley H. Howe. The funeral arrangements were made by the New Zionist Organiza- tion under the direction of E. Ben-Horin. 

At the end of the chapel service the coffin, draped with a Zionist flag, was carried from the funeral home, surrounded by an honor guard of fifty boys and girls, mem- bers of the Brith Trumpeldor. Many men and women wept as Martin Winnick, national bugler of the Jewish War Veterans, sounded taps before the coffin was placed in the hearse. Estimated by Inspector John J. De Martino, who directed fifty patrol- men and five sergeants, as one of the largest funerals on the East Side, a throng of 25,000 followed the cortege or lined the route. 

All vehicular traffic was stopped on Second Avenue as the hearse and guard of honor went north on Sec- ond Avenue to Fourteenth Street, east to First Avenue, south to Thirteenth and then west again to Second Avenue. Proceeding south on Second Avenue, where Jewish theatres and homes had hung out mourning drapes, the cortege stopped be- tween Tenth and Ninth Streets in front of the funeral chapel, where the cantors sang a Jewish mourn- ing song and the Jewish national anthem. At Houston Street and Second Avenue, a salute of honor was giv- en the hearse, and then a motorcade of fifty cars and eight buses left for the New Montefiore Ceme- tery at Farmingdale, L. I., where a military service was held. 

Burial was in the cemetery's Nardau Circle. It is expected permanent burial will take place in Palestine when the war is over. The military guard of honor was formed by the Jewish War Veterans, East Side Post No. 4, and led by A. Propes, leader of the Zionist youth movement in Poland, and Jeremiah Halpren, leader of the Marine League of Zionists. Other Jewish organizations represented were the Nardau Circle of the Zion- ist Organization of America and Young Israel.

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