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THE FIGHTING IDEALIST
A Portrait of Herbert Joseph Haas
By Orin Borsten
\ high level of achievement and philanthropy
/"V maintained over a period of ihirtv vears
has made Herbert J. Haas an outstanding
figure in Southern life. His career has had
nothing of the spectacular or the frenzied pub
licity with which many n en label their most
trivial acts. Modest and unassuming by nature,
lie has been content to stand in the shadow of
anonymity while others strut and bow in the
limelight.
The great paradox in the life of Herbert J.
Haas is that his personality and the myth that
his modesty has created, are at odds. He is no
small-stnturcd man; on the contrary, la* is a
husky, vigorous, square-jawed individual, com
pelling even to voice and gesture. The man
who electrifes crowded court rooms and the
man who slips quietly out of the back hall to
avoid reporter^, are one and the same.
1'.nrtched Hi/ the II isdom Of IIis .Mother
CAROUSE HAAS
His diverse qualities constitute one of the
most vital personalities in the South.
It is only through a study of his youth and
the forces that shaped him that his character
becomes wholly understandable. The story of
the Haas home during his boyhood supplies a
rich, illuminating background for an evaluation
of Herbert Haas's work and influence.
His father was Jacob Haas, son of Leopold
of Eieh, Bavaria, who came to America in the
1850's at tlie age of sixteen. Although the
circumstances of their lives differ, there is a
remarkable resemblance between Herbert Haas
and his father. It is most striking in the pro
gression of the interests built up by the father
and curried on to fulfilment by the son. Jacob
Haas began his career as a peddler, served in
the ( onfederate Army under General Braxton
Bragg, and after tlie war, j>ossessed by wander
lust, roamed over the greater part of America.
In 1N71, lie married his cousin, the lovely <'ani
line Amelia Haas, who held the proud distinc
tion of being the first white girl born in Atlanta,
shortly after it had discarded the* bucolic name
of Marthasville. Marriage tamed the restless
spirit of Jacob Haas, and his rise in finance in
Atlanta was phenomenal, from cashier in the
( apitol ( ity Bank, he rose, in the short space
of three years, to I resident. An insurance
and real estate company, started as a side busi
ness with his son, l.enfiold, grew beyond his
wildest dreams, and in BMW) he left the bank
to devote his time to the new venture.
Jacob and < aniline Haas were acknowledged
leaders in Jewish circles in Atlanta and the
South. Caroline occupied herself with her
children and her innumerable charities; Jacob
was active in congregational life and took his
[dace as one of the leading philanthropists in the
community.
Young Herbert grew up in adoration of his
parents. He profited by the business genius
of his father, and became enriched by the
wisdom and charm of his mother. The con
stant preoccupation with charities and causes
in the Haas home developed in the boy a strong
sense of duty to the poverty-stricken people of
the community. It awakened him to the ex
istence of social injustice and unpredictable
t i<les < >f life.
There were many professions open to Herbert
Haas in that day. but from the beginning he
sensed that law alone would satisfy the hunger
that burned within him to champion the weak.
At Columbia I niversitv he made a brilliant
scholastic record, and graduated at the age of
twenty-one. receiving his A.B. and IX. B.
degrees. In nediately afterward, he began law*
pract ice.
Young Attorney Haas found the legal world
hard and bewildering, inhabited by many
mercenary practitioners whose aims were the
antithesis of his own. He went through a
period of adjustment and change, but his
youthful idealism remained intact. It was his
own battle— a battle that men with vision con
stantly wage in the professional world. \ 1 • *1
In January, 1909, Jacob Haas died. The
ambition of the man who had fought his way
from peddler to financier and civic leader was
calmed at last. His stricken survivors bore the
tragedy with the dignity and fortitude of a
family whose love and devotion had been the
wellspring of their lives.
His father’s death was a great loss to Herliert
Haas. In manhood as well as in boyhood, his
parents had exerted a profound influence over
him, and the man he was later to be was the
sum of that influence. But Jacob Haas left a
spiritual heritage that never died, that lived on
m neriicrt Maas and ms brothers amt sisters—
E. Arthur, I.co|M>ld J., Blanche, Elsie, Clemmie,
and Mrs. Leo Strauss.
In November, 1909, Herbert Haas married
lima Fader, of Memphis, Tennessee, daughter
of Joseph and Flora Fader. They were ideally
suited to each other, and lima filler! the gap
that Jacob Haas's passing had left in her hus
band s life. She understood the sense of justice
that burned in him, and his outrage at the
vicious aspects of society. Their lives were
built upon a foundation of love and under
standing that made it jx ssiblc for Herl>crt
Haas to achieve all that he had dreamed of as a
bov.
No clearer insight into the character of Her
bert Haas exists than in the tragic records of
the Leo I rank case. In that blood-stained
history, the man who believed most in Frank’s
innocence was Herbert Haas. He was then a
rising young lawyer, secure in his profession.
An Acknowledged Leader
His Father JACOB HAAS
destined for a brilliant career. His passionate
interest, in the Frank case alarmed his friends,
who pleaded with him to keep his hands free
of the hopeless tangle in which circumstance
had caught Leo Frank. It would ruin his
career, they told him: it would destroy in one
shattering crash all that he had built up. On
the other hand, whispered threats from the
vicious circle of Frank's enemies reached him
continually. Although it was not known until
some later time, a friend followed him con
stantly and acted as self-appointed bodyguard.
But with characteristic courage, Attorney Haas
defended the man whose life rushed to its horrible
end with such stark inevitability.
lima Haas bore two children, Carolyn and
Joseph. They grew up in the same atmosphere
of intimacy and affection that Herliert Haas
himself had known as a Imy. Young Joseph
has followed in his father’s footsteps and in law
practice reveals something of the rugged quali
ties of his father.
Herbert Haas has l>een the official champion
of distressed widows since the early days of his
career. It is not unusual to enter his offices and
find secretaries scurrying about in frenzied
solitude of angry clients, while Herbert Haas,
with grim unconcern, sits in his inner sanctum
giving counsel to a tearful widow. He has
helped rebuild the lives of many such women,
investing their savings for them, planning for
their bereft children, and guiding them safely
out of the depths of hopefulness and despair.
The children of the Hebrew Orphan’s Home
have always (Please turn to Page 17)
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE *
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