Israel
In 1912, a trip to what was then called Palestine was to affect Straus profoundly. On the trip he became fascinated with the area. His brother Isidor and Isidor's wife headed back to New York aboard the Titanic and perished when it sank. Feeling he had been spared by divine intervention, he devoted two-thirds of his fortune to helping Palestine. He established a domestic science school for girls in 1912, a health bureau to fight malaria and trachoma, and a free public kitchen. He opened a Pasteur Institute, child-health welfare stations, and then funded the Nathan and Lina Straus Health Centers in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
The modern Israeli city of Netanya, founded in 1927, was named in his honor, and Rehov Straus in Jerusalem, which was Chancellor Avenue during the British Mandate, was also named for him.
Nathan Straus died on January 11, 1931, in New York City. Twenty years before, at a dinner in his honor, he had given what could have been his own eulogy.
I often think of the old saying, "The world is my country, to do good is my religion. ... This has often been an inspiration to me. I might say, "Humanity is my kin, to save babies is my religion." It is a religion I hope will have thousands of followers.
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Famous quotes containing the word israel:
“appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.”
—Bible: Hebrew, 1 Samuel 8:5.
Leaders of ancient Israel asking the last of the judges, Samuel, to appoint a king.
“There is Israel, for us at least. What no other generation had, we have. We have Israel in spite of all the dangers, the threats and the wars, we have Israel. We can go to Jerusalem. Generations and generations could not and we can.”
—Elie Wiesel (b. 1928)
“Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 34:10.