Baron Georges Schnek, a leading Belgian Jewish activist for more than half a century, has died.

Schnek died Sunday at his home in Ixelles, Belgium at 88.

Schnek, who worked with the anti-Nazi resistance during World War II, was a professor emeritus of chemistry at the Brussels Free University and also taught history at Jewish ORT schools.

In 1947, he founded the Belgian Union of Jewish Students and in the course of his long career was Chairman of the Belgium Jewish Museum and also headed the Consistoire, or umbrella organization of Belgian Jewry.

King Albert II made him a Baron in 2001.