OBITUARIES : Florence Dworsky, 89; Friends of Hebrew University Founder

Florence G. Dworsky, founder of the American Friends of the Hebrew University, the primary support group for the world’s largest Jewish institution of higher learning, has died in Jerusalem. She was 89 and died Sunday, a spokesman for the organization said.

Over the years the Dworskys--Philip N. Dworsky was a successful Minneapolis businessman who died several years ago--contributed vast sums of his money and thousands of hours of her time to Hebrew University, first opened in 1925 and which now has 17,000 full-time and 16,000 part-time students at its three campuses in Jerusalem.

Mrs. Dworsky, who moved to Jerusalem from Los Angeles in 1974, was credited with sparking the growth of the Western region of the Friends organization while living in Los Angeles. After moving to Israel she became president of the Jerusalem chapter of the Friends, a position she had also held in Minneapolis, where she founded the first chapter of the support group in 1930.

From that initial group has grown 31 chapters in as many countries throughout the world.

Most recently the Florence Dworsky Conservatory and Botanical Garden on the Givat Ram campus of Hebrew University was named for her, as was the first married-students dormitory at the Mount Scopus campus. Additionally, Mrs. Dworsky, a native of the Soviet Union who came to the United States in 1897, made a substantial bequest to the botanical gardens in her will, the Friends spokesman said.