President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated on Friday November 22, 1963. The Temple planned a memorial service for him in the Temple Sanctuary for the morning of Sunday, December 1.

On Thursday November 28 - Thanksgiving Day - Abba Hillel Silver was at his home in Shaker Heights. He may have been working on his eulogy for the president. Early that afternoon, while sitting down to dinner with his family, he became ill. His sons Daniel Jeremy and Raphael took him to the hospital where he died before 4 pm. 

Later that afternoon local radio stations announced the news. The next morning the Cleveland Plain dealer ran this front page above-the-fold story.