(Rudolf or Israel; 1906-1957), journalist, lawyer, and Zionist leader. Kasztner was a Labor Zionist activist, first in his hometown of Cluj and then, after the annexation of Transylvania by hungary in 1940, in Budapest. In early 1943 he became the vice chairman, in fact the guiding spirit, of the relief and rescue committee of budapest of the Zionist movement, under Otto komoly. The committee maintained contact with the Slovak pracovna skupina (Working Group), which included Gisi fleischmann and Rabbi Michael Dov weissmandel; through it with Poland; and with a group of Palestinian emissaries in Istanbul, among whose founding members were Haim Barlas, Menachem Bader, and Venja Pomerantz. >> The committee was
