Rosh Betar's Death

1.


Vladimir Jabotinsky Dies of Heart Attack at 59; Was Visiting Youth Camp
August 5, 1940

NEW YORK (Aug. 4)

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.

For more than two decades the stormy petrel of the Zionist movement, Jabotinsky was visiting the United States to stimulate interest in the raising of a Jewish army to fight with the Allies. He had been here since March 13 and only recently addressed a mass meeting at the Manhattan Center, during which he predicted that a "co-belligerent" Jewish army would soon be fighting as an ally of Britain under the British army’s command.

Just a few days before he died, it was revealed, Jabotinsky had decided to return shortly to England to resume negotiations with the Government for creation of the projected army, which he envisioned as numbering 100,000 Jews from all parts of the world.

The presidency of the New Zionist Organizaton, in announcing Jabotinsky’s death, declared its determination to "continue the fight until the full redemption of Israel as envisioned by Jabotinsky."


...In his recent New York addresses, Jabotinsky advocated creation of a united Jewish front through establishment of a world Jewish headquarters supervising all other bodies.


2.


25,000 Mourn at Jabotinsky Rites; Work Stoppage in Palestine
August 7, 1940


NEW YORK (Aug. 6)

With more than 25,000 persons crowding nearby streets, services were held today for Vladimir Jabotinsky, who died Saturday night at the age of 59, in the Gramercy Park Funeral Chapel, attended by some 750 Zionists of all factions, other Jewish leaders, public officials and non-Jewish admirers of the Zionist-Revisionist leader.

After a procession described by police as “one of the largest in the East Side’s history” and “the largest with a military background,” Jabotinsky was buried in a three ton concrete-bronze vault in the Max Nordau Circle of the New Montefiore Cemetery, Farmingdale, L.I., pending removal after the war to Palestine–from which he had been in exile for 20 years.

The simple orthodox service in the chapel was conducted by Rabbi Morris N. Rose of Temple Sinai, Brooklyn, and there were no eulogies, following the precedent set by Theodor Herzl’s funeral in 1904. While the rites were in progress, large crowds mourned on Second Avenue. Some had been there all night.

After the services a procession wended slowly up Second Avenue to Fourteenth Street and down to East Houston Street, where about 1,000 persons boarded buses and private automobiles to proceed to the cemetery. Yiddish theaters and Jewish institutions along the route were draped with black. As the procession passed the chapel a second time, it halted briefly while the Cantors’ Association sang “El Mole Rachamim.” The ceremony concluded with the singing of “Hatikvah,” in which thousands of bystanders joined the cantors. From the chapel, the procession was led by Max Greenberg, who lost a leg while fighting by Jabotinsky’s side with the Jewish Legion in Palestine.

In the procession were delegations from the Brith Trumpeldor, American Friends of Jewish Palestine, Jewish War Veterans of the United States, American Palestine Jewish Legion, Young Israel and other Jewish organizations. Many had tears in their eyes as the mass slowly moved down Second Avenue.

Borough Police Inspector John di Martino, who commanded a large police contingent, averted a possible accident when he diverted to another street an emergency truck speeding to a fire.

At the cemetery, the mourners were joined by scores of youths from the Betar Camp at Hunter, N.Y., where Jabotinsky died.

Among those who attended the chapel service were representatives of the British, Czechoslovak and Polish Governments, Stanley Lowe, representing Mayor LaGuardia; Ben Howe, chairman of the City Fusion Party, and James G. McDonald, chairman of the President’s Advisory Committee on Refugees.

Revisionist leaders present included Prof. Benjamin Akzin, Eliahu Ben-Horin and Captain Jeremiah Halpern. Others who attended were Edmund I. Kaufmann, president of the Zionist Organization of America; Dr. Hirsch J. Gordon, commander of the American Palestine Jewish Legion; Sol Masch, State Commander of the Jewish War Veterans; Maurice Schwartz, the actor; John Gunther, the author; Willard G. Stanton, secretary of the American Friends of a Jewish Palestine, and Col. J.H. Patterson, commander of the 1918 Palestine Jewish Legion.

The Yiddish press joined today in paying tribute to Jabotinsky. The Jewish Morning Journal said that “just as he represented the best in the Jewish people, so his death symbolized the tragedy of our time.” The Day said: “With Jabotinsky’s death there is removed from us a glorious personality in Jewish life, a wonderful and romantic figure, a clean man and a great idealist.” The Jewish Daily Forward called him “one of the most colorful personalities in a colorful, stormy Jewish generation.”


3.


Jabotinsky’s Remains to Repose in U.S. Until Palestine Has Jewish Government
July 22, 1941


NEW YORK (Jul. 21)

The wish of Vladimir Jabotinsky, late Revisionist leader, not to have his remains transferred to Palestine “unless by order of that country’s eventual Jewish government,” was revealed here today by his widow, Mrs. Anna Jabotinsky, in connection with the preparations for the unveiling of the monument over Jabotinsky’s grave at Pine Lawn Cemetery, on Sunday, July 27, the first anniversary of his death.

“I wish to be buried wherever I happen to die; and my remains–should I be buried outside of Palestine–are not to be transferred to Palestine unless by order of that country’s eventual Jewish Government,” Jabotinsky instructed his wife in a letter several years ago.

Jewish aviators will fly overhead in military formations as a special tribute during the ceremony while the memorial prayers are sacredly chanted at the unveiling ceremonies. The flyers are from the Jabotinsky Aviation School, established by the New Zionist Organization of America. An added dramatic note will be given the ceremonies by the recital of an oath on the part of members of the Betar pledging themselves to continue their struggle for Palestine unceasingly until the achievement of all of Jabotinsky’s aims. The services will be concluded with the recital of the Kaddish by Eri Jabotinsky, son of the Revisionist leader, who was freed from the British prison at Acre, Palestine, on the same day on which his father died. There will be no eulogies at the services.


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