Maurice Boukstein, a distinguished American Zionist leader and New York attorney died today in Fort Lauderdale, Flo. at the age of 75.
Since 1946 he served as legal advisor to the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization. In that capacity, in 1952, he negotiated with Premier David Ben Gurion the enactment by the Knesset of the Law of States of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency which he brought up to date in 1979.
Boukstein was actively involved in developing the legal framework of the leading organizations assisting in the development of Israel: the United Jewish Appeal and the United Palestine Appeal-United Israel Appeal which he served as legal advisor for four decodes. He was also the general counsel to Hadassah:
Boukstein drafted the agreement which resulted in the Reconstitution of the Jewish Agency for Israel in 1971. He was directly involved in, and made major contributions to the negotiations with the Federal Republic of Germany for compensation and indemnification for victims of Nazi persecution. He was chairman of the Board and president of the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization and the founder and for three decodes the counsel of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. He was also a former JTA Board member.
ACTIVE IN ZIONIST AFFAIRS
Actively engaged in Zionist affairs since 1932, Boukstein was a member of the Board of Governors and in 1970-1971 served as chairman of the Executive Council of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. He was also legal advisor and one of the founders of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute. The Institute awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1976.
He served on numerous Zionist bodies, including the American Zionist Emergency Council, the Zionist Organization of America and Jewish National Fund.
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.
