Lavy Bakstansky, secretary general of the British Zionist Federation since 1940 and a former close aide to the late Dr. Chaim Weizmann, first President of Israel, died here today at the age of 66. Mr. Bakstansky was a member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, a director of the Joint Palestine Appeal, and a founder and member of the British section of the World Jewish Congress Born in Slonim in Czarist Russia, he was educated in Tel Aviv and later at the London School of Economics, where he became the first Jewish chairman of the student union. As Secretary General of the British Zionist Federation he exercised a decisive influence and transformed the organization from a base for Dr. Weizmann’s political activity into an instrument of Zionist partnership with the Jewish State and a major promulgator of Jewish education. Messages of condolence and tribute were received today from Dr. Israel Goldstein, chairman of Keren Hayesod; Louis A. Pincus, chairman of the Jewish Agency; Dr. Nahura Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress; Michael M. Sacher, chairman of the Joint Palestine Appeal; Eva Violet, the Marchioness of Reading, president of the British section of the WJC; Rose L. Halprin, co-chairman of the World Confederation of General Zionists, and Kalman Sultanik, WCGZ executive vice-chairman.
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