Death of Dr. Adolph M. Radin
Dr. Adolph Moses Radin, our esteemed colleague in the cause of Zionism, sterling campaigner, resourceful orator and unflagging communal worker, passed away in the city of New York at his home, on Thursday night, February 4, after several weeks of illness. His death was caused by heart disease.
Dr. Radin was a man of peculiar talent. He was an able Hebrew and Talmudic scholar, keenly interested in every development of Hebrew literature, and well-versed in its modern history. He was an orator in the sense that he would vividly present a Jewish theme that had immediate value and drive it home with a wealth of Biblical allusion and with physicial force, although his voice in recent years had lost the resonance of youth and its sustaining power. In spite of these limitations, however, he was a very effective preacher, and could hold an audience by sheer brilliancy of thought.
But his talent was supreme in the field of personal influence. There is probably
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References:—Jewish Encyclopedia under “Ahasuerus,” “Esther,” “Purim,”“Purim Plays;” Abrahams, Jewish Life inthe Middle Ages, Index under Purim.For the Yiddish Drama, see Jewish Encyclopedia, under “Drama, Yiddish;”Wiener, Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century.
NOTE.—Leopold Zunz (1794-1886) and Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) died in this month. The former is regarded as the founder of Jewish science, the latter is recognized as one of the greatest philosophers of modern times. The articles in the Jewish Encyclopedia on these two men will furnish material for essays and discussions.
not a man living in New York, who had such a large circle of friends whom he could bend to his purpose. Dr. Radin was a volks-schnorrer on a large scale. He schorred for the Jewish people, to alleviate their present needs as well as for their future redemption. Any cause in which he was interested—and he was interested in a large number—could depend upon the domations of the circle of friends, who were made to use him as their almoner.
The Zionist movement owes much to him as an orator, as an active and able adviser, as one keenly interested in its material and spiritual welfare, but it owes a great deal more to him for his faithfulness as a gatherer of funds, without which Zionism in this country could not long survive in its organized form. THE MACCABAEAN, also, owes a great deal to Dr. Radin. Week in and week out he sought to increase its circulation, to build