Esther G Gottesman

Esther G. Gottesman, whose service to the Jewish community spanned more than 60 years and who played an important role in the acquisition of the Dead Sea Scrolls for Israel, died at her home in Palm Beach, Fla. She was 98 and had homes in Palm Beach and Manhattan. A lifelong Zionist, she was a delegate to the first postwar congress of the World Zionist Organization in Basel, Switzerland, in 1946. She was a member of the WZO Action Committee during the formative years of the State of Israel. A supporter of Jewish education, she was active in the Board of Jewish Education in New York for many years. Mrs. Gottesman was born in Manhattan in 1898, the daughter of Aaron and Sarah Garfunkel. She graduated from New York University in 1921 and married Benjamin Gottesman, a banker and investment manager, the same year. He died in 1979. The couple's financial support of Yeshiva University resulted in the establishment of the Mendel Gottesman Library, named after Mr. Gottesman's father, the endowment of a chair in Library Sciences and creation of the Benjamin Gottesman Presidential Lecture Series. The family's involvement with the university covered 75 years. She is survived by two sons, David S. Gottesman of Manhattan and Milton M. Gottesman of Washington; two brothers, Harold Garfunkel of Manhattan and Julian Garfunkel of Scarsdale, N.Y.; a sister, Florence Roswell of Manhattan; three grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.