Leah Brown, Pioneer Women Founder, Labor Zionist Leader, Friend of Mrs. Meir, Dies at 77

Mrs. Leah (Zvonkin) Brown, 77, a founder of the Pioneer Women’s Organization of America and a leader of the Labor Zionist movement, died yesterday at her home in Brooklyn. Funeral services will be tomorrow at 11 a.m. at Gramercy Park Memorial Chapel in Manhattan. Born in Russia and having come to this country in her early teens, she was the widow of the late Meyer Brown, founder, first Secretary and for many years President of Farband Labor Zionist Order, whom she met in Philadelphia in 1907. She came from a distinguished family of scholars and devoted most of her life to educational work, primarily among immigrant women and their children. She was among the firsts even women to form the Pioneer Women’s Organization of America in 1927, edited its publication for many years and had been serving on its National Board throughout its existence. She represented the organization at several World Zionist Congresses and other international conclaves. She and her husband resided in Jerusalem for several years before the establishment of the State of Israel and she was a close personal friend of Israel’s Premier Golda Meir, President Zalman Shazar and his wife, Rachel.