TRIBUTE OF JEWRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 21, 25 January 1936, Page 7

TRIBUTE OF JEWRY.

" BELOVED BY ALL." KING'S WORK AT PALESTINE. "HE DELIVERED THE PEOPLE." : How great was the debt that Jewry considers it owed to his late Majesty, " George V. was amply demonstrated at ' the special memorial service held in the ; Synagogue this morning. This debt ' formed a major theme in the sermon 1 delivered by the Rabbi in Auckland, the Rev. A. Astor, B.A. 1 First he read the twenty-third Psalm, and the serene faith and the tranquil ! triumph of those words fell into that place of sanctuary of the Jewish faith, where stood, the reader, the Almemar, draped with the Union Jack, laced with the symbol of R'byal mourning, the cfeme and the purple. In view of what he ' was later to say in his sermon, it was appropriate that the Zionist flag should be associated with the British flag and the symbol of mourning. The King, one realised, had been led throughout his life "beside the still waters." And then followed the sixtyfirst Psalm. "For Thou, O God . . . didst vouchsafe honour unto the King's life." The words fell very clearly, for a church is a place of quiet. "His years have been as many generations. He shall abide before God for ever; he shall dwell in the Tabernacle" of the Almifihtv. Selah." Death Came at Zenith of Power. "So unprepared were we for the terrible news," the Rabbi said, "that we failed to realise the magnitude of the loss which has thrown a whole Empire into mourning—the loss of a prized King, revered and beloved by all, a King in the zenith of greatness and power, the loss of a life so pre-eminently valuable to the world in these critical days. The great leveller Death has removed our late 'beloved King from this earthly sphere of struggle and strife to the abode of eternal light and bliss." The King, he said, had been true to the traditions of the British Throne and he discharged well the promise made at his accession that he would serve liis country faithfully. To-day the Empire showed to the world a solid front, unbroken and impregnable. "The reign of the late King George," the speaker continued, "is closely associated with Jewish history because of events jthat have taken place in Palestine in the' past 19 years." The King had visited Palestine when a midshipman •on the Bacchante. "Twenty-five years after this event came the crowning achievement of the late King in connection with Jewish history, in the issue of the great Balfour Declaration, when the century-old sym-, pathy of the British Governments, and 1 the Britih people was reaching its" culmination in the acceptance of a British Government of the trust of Palestine, there to assist in the creation of a national home for the Jewish people. To the Jews —The Modern Cyrus. "King George will always be remembered by Jews throughout the world as the modern Cyrus, who delivered them, and enabled them to return to their historic home in Palestine," he said. "The great and good King George afforded his Jewish subjects security and equality in a world filled with tribulation and prejudice, and England to-day appears to the Jew to be a ray of light in the immensity of the world's darkness. ' „ "And now, my dear friends, the voice of the King is hushed in silence; he has entered the Kingdom of and peace. He moulded his conduct that mortality should earn its immortality. If the worth of a life is to be measured by its moral value, his was a priceless 011 c. His mortal remains will return to the dust; hih spirit unto the Lord who gave it." The Rabbi ended with a prayer of condolence for the King's son, King Edward VIII., for the Queen Mother and the Royal Family. He prayed also that the British Empire would continue to go fro mstrength to strength. j Finally two verses of the National

Anthem were sung in slow measure.