SYNAGOGUE UNVEILS A STRAUS WINDOW
New York Times
Impressive Services When Memorial Is Dedicated Before Montefiore Cbongregation
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MR. STRAUS'S BROAD CHARITY
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Edward Lauterbach Praises Him for His Gifts to People of All Faiths
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Impressive services were held yesterday morning in the synagogue of the Montefiore Congregation, on Hewitt Place, near Prospect Avenue, the Bronx, when a window dedicated to the memory of Isidor Straus and his wife, Mrs. Ida Straus, was unveiled by Edward Lauterbach in the presence of several members of the Straus family. The window, which is about 8 feet high and 8 feet wide, bears this inscription:
In Memory of Isidor Straus and His Wife,
Ida Straus.
Died the 28th Day of Nisan, 5672.
April 15, 1912.
"Where thou wilt go I will go. Where
thou wilt die I will die."
The speakers were Edward Lauterbach, who acted as Chairman; State Senator Anthony Griffin, Rabbi Alexander Basel of the Montefiore Congregation, and the Rev. Dr. Nathan Krass of Brooklyn. The members of the Straus family who attended were Percy and Herbert Straus, Supreme Court Justice Irving Lehman and Mrs. Lehman, and Mrs. Kohns, a sister of Isidor Straus, with her son Lee Kohns, a Trustee of the College of the City of New York.
After prayer and a short address by Rabbi Basel, Mr. Lauterbach told of a long and intimate acquaintance with the Straus family, beginning with Lazarus Straus, the father of Isidor and Nathan Straus and Mrs. Kohns. "No one," he said, "was more to be praised for the advance of the Jewish people in this country than my dear friend Lazarus Straus. His descendants have nobly carried out the duty and the trust that devolved upon them."
Mr. Lauterbach described Isidor Straus as calm, modest, unassuming, self-obliterative, always actuated by love for the people and interested in every scheme of altruism.
"There was no sectarianism in Isidor Straus," said Mr. Lauterbach. "He gave alike to Christian and to Jew."
Senator Griffin said: "Despite the fearful disaster and its results that have brought us here to-day, it is a satisfaction to be able to pay tribute to virtue. For all this means, in the last analysis, a tribute to virtue and to courage. This dreadful catastrophe is not without certain softening features. It has brought men of all nations and all creeds together in a common grief and sympathy; it has left behind it examples of affection that should go far in these days when our divorce courts are crowded. There was a display of courage, of devotion, unequaled in the history of the human race. The man had a chance to die a glorious death and give way to the women. But on that deck stood one woman who, when she was besought to enter the boats, said to her husband "Where thou goest I go; where thou diest I die."
Dr. Krass, the last speaker, said in part: "We would place a wreath woven of the strands of memory upon them. To speak of them is a privilege; to mention them from the pulpit of a synagogue is a sacred honor. So much has been said here that words can add no more; but one thought may have been neglected: Judaism is not confined to the synagogue, nor to sermons and ceremonies. You have come here because you feel that Judaism is bigger than all the Prayer Books and all the synagogues. The life and death of Isidor Straus have dealt a fatal blow to anti-Semitism. He has proved to the world what the real type of Jew is."
---
MR. STRAUS'S BROAD CHARITY
---
Edward Lauterbach Praises Him for His Gifts to People of All Faiths
---
Impressive services were held yesterday morning in the synagogue of the Montefiore Congregation, on Hewitt Place, near Prospect Avenue, the Bronx, when a window dedicated to the memory of Isidor Straus and his wife, Mrs. Ida Straus, was unveiled by Edward Lauterbach in the presence of several members of the Straus family. The window, which is about 8 feet high and 8 feet wide, bears this inscription:
In Memory of Isidor Straus and His Wife,
Ida Straus.
Died the 28th Day of Nisan, 5672.
April 15, 1912.
"Where thou wilt go I will go. Where
thou wilt die I will die."
The speakers were Edward Lauterbach, who acted as Chairman; State Senator Anthony Griffin, Rabbi Alexander Basel of the Montefiore Congregation, and the Rev. Dr. Nathan Krass of Brooklyn. The members of the Straus family who attended were Percy and Herbert Straus, Supreme Court Justice Irving Lehman and Mrs. Lehman, and Mrs. Kohns, a sister of Isidor Straus, with her son Lee Kohns, a Trustee of the College of the City of New York.
After prayer and a short address by Rabbi Basel, Mr. Lauterbach told of a long and intimate acquaintance with the Straus family, beginning with Lazarus Straus, the father of Isidor and Nathan Straus and Mrs. Kohns. "No one," he said, "was more to be praised for the advance of the Jewish people in this country than my dear friend Lazarus Straus. His descendants have nobly carried out the duty and the trust that devolved upon them."
Mr. Lauterbach described Isidor Straus as calm, modest, unassuming, self-obliterative, always actuated by love for the people and interested in every scheme of altruism.
"There was no sectarianism in Isidor Straus," said Mr. Lauterbach. "He gave alike to Christian and to Jew."
Senator Griffin said: "Despite the fearful disaster and its results that have brought us here to-day, it is a satisfaction to be able to pay tribute to virtue. For all this means, in the last analysis, a tribute to virtue and to courage. This dreadful catastrophe is not without certain softening features. It has brought men of all nations and all creeds together in a common grief and sympathy; it has left behind it examples of affection that should go far in these days when our divorce courts are crowded. There was a display of courage, of devotion, unequaled in the history of the human race. The man had a chance to die a glorious death and give way to the women. But on that deck stood one woman who, when she was besought to enter the boats, said to her husband "Where thou goest I go; where thou diest I die."
Dr. Krass, the last speaker, said in part: "We would place a wreath woven of the strands of memory upon them. To speak of them is a privilege; to mention them from the pulpit of a synagogue is a sacred honor. So much has been said here that words can add no more; but one thought may have been neglected: Judaism is not confined to the synagogue, nor to sermons and ceremonies. You have come here because you feel that Judaism is bigger than all the Prayer Books and all the synagogues. The life and death of Isidor Straus have dealt a fatal blow to anti-Semitism. He has proved to the world what the real type of Jew is."
Related Biographies:
Isidor Straus
Rosalie Ida Straus
Contributor
Mark Baber
