Harold Manson Dead at 66

Funeral services were held here yesterday for Harold Manson, director of the Office of Academic Affairs of the American Friends of the Hebrew University. He died Sunday at the age of 66.

Manson was responsible for the development of one of the United States’s most successful overseas study programs, which has sent thousands of American students to study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He played a major role in the creation and development of the Rothberg School for Overseas Students at the Hebrew University.

A former correspondent in the Middle East for the Overseas News Agency, Manson played a prominent role during the late 1940’s in winning support in the United States for the establishment of the State of Israel. From 1945 through 1948, he was director of information for the American Zionist Emergency Council.

During those years, his office became a central source of information for the press and public. On a number of occasions, he was the Yishuv’s official spokesman before major bodies, including the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

In 1949, Manson was named director of public relations in the Western Hemisphere for the Jewish Agency. The Zionist Quarterly was launched in 1951 under his editorship. During the mid and late 1950’s, he was executive vice chairman of the Zionist Organization of America where he headed its department of Public Relations. He also served on the Executive Committee of the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs.

Manson came to the American Friends of the Hebrew University in 1959 and was its public relations director for a number of years. He had served as director of its Office of Academic Affairs since 1966. The Hebrew University recently selected Manson to receive the 1985 Samuel Rothberg Prize for Jewish Education.

In addition to his work as a journalist, publicist and educator, Manson was a writer. Among his published works is a biographical study of Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, “In the Time of Harvest,” and a historical review of Israel’s emergence, “Vision and Victory.”