The body of David Wertheim, leader of the American Zionist Labor movement who died in Havana last Friday while on a mission for the Histadrut fundraising campaign, was brought to New York today. It will be buried tomorrow. Mr. Wertheim, who was stricken while on his way from the Havanna airport, was 56 years old.
Born in Bessarabia, Mr. Wertheim was the son of a rabbi and a descendant of Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Hassidic movement in Jewry. He was educated at the Universities of Odessa and Berlin as well as the Berlin Academy of Jewish Science.
He came to the United States in 1923 and was general secretary of the Labor Zionist Organization of American from 1930 to 1945. He later became director of the Latin American department of the National Labor Committee for Israel which is conducting the Histadrut campaign in the Western Hemisphere. He was also active in other Zionist groups in the United States.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.