The JTA Account of Rosh Betar's Passing

August 5, 1940

Vladimir Jabotinsky Dies of Heart Attack at 59; Was Visiting Youth Camp

NEW YORK - Vladimir Jabotinsky, prominent Zionist-Revisionist leader, writer and soldier, died of coronary thrombosis shortly before midnight last night at Camp Betar near Hunter, N.Y., it was announce here today by the New Zionist Organization, of which ge was the world leader since its organization in 1935. He was 59 years old.

Death occurred a few hours after Jabotinsky had reviewed a parade of the campers, members of the Zionist-Revisionist youth organization known as Brith Trumpeldor. The Zionist leader had come to the camp to spend the weekend.

Funeral services will be held Tuesday at noon from Schwartz's Funeral Parlor, 152 Second Avenue. Burial will take place the same day at the New Montefiore Cemetery, Long Island, in the section belonging to the New zionist Nordar circle."

Surviving the leader are his widow, Jeanne, who is in London, and a son, Eri, a civil engineer in Palestine. Eri is serving a term of one year at the Acre concentration camp, administratively imposed because of his role in aiding extra-legal Jewish immigrants to enter Palestine.

P.S.   Jabotinsky first came to Camp Betar in Hunter on July 13, 1940, three weeks before he would return and die there. 

The New York Times' account:

Thousands Line Streets When Cortege Passes through East Side After Service
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. Led by Joseph Ruminsky  (Rumshinsky- ed.) Jewish composer, 200 Verband cantors sang an ancient Hebrew ritual chant. At the request of Mr. Jabotinsky, there were no speeches, 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 100 honorary pallbearers, all close associates of Mr. Jabotinsky in his fight for a Jewish nationalist state in Palestine.

Estimated by Inspector John J. De Martino, who directed fifty patrolmen 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 Second 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 between Tenth and Ninth Streets in front of the funeral chapel, where the cantors sang a Jewish mourning song and the Jewish national anthem.

^