Weizmann, Chaim (khīm` vīts`män), 1874–1952, scientist and Zionist leader, first president (1948–52) of Israel, b. Russia, grad. Univ. of Freiburg, 1899. He lectured in chemistry at the Univ. of Geneva (1901–3) and later taught at the Univ. of Manchester. Active in Zionism Zionism, modern political movement for reconstituting a Jewish national state in Palestine.

Early Years

The rise of the Zionist movement in the late 19th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. from his youth, Weizmann first visited Palestine in 1907. He became a British subject in 1910, and in World War I he was (1916–19) director of the British admiralty laboratories. He became famous when he developed a synthetic acetone to be used in the manufacture of explosives. In 1917 he helped procure the pro-Zionist declaration of Arthur James Balfour Balfour, Arthur James Balfour, 1st earl of (băl`f
..... Click the link for more information. . A founder of so-called synthetic Zionism, Weizmann supported grass-roots colonization efforts as well as higher-level diplomatic activity. After 1920 he assumed leadership in the world Zionist movement, serving twice (1920–31, 1935–46) as president of the World Zionist Organization. In World War II he was (1939–45) honorary adviser to the British ministry of supply and did research on synthetic rubber and high-octane gasoline. When the republic of Israel was founded (1948), Weizmann became the first president. At Rehoboth, where he lived, Weizmann founded a research institute (now the Weizmann Institute of Science). He wrote many papers for scientific journals. Ezer Wiezman Weizman, Ezer (ā`zər vīt`smän)
..... Click the link for more information. is his nephew.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1949); his letters and papers (3 vol., 1968–72); biography ed. by M. W. Weisgal and J. Carmichael (1962); studies by I. Berlin (1958) and I. Kolatt (1970); P. Goodman, ed., Chaim Weizmann: A Tribute (1959).

Weizmann, Chaim (Azriel)

(born Nov. 27, 1874, Motol, Pol., Russian Empire—died Nov. 9, 1952, Rehovot, Israel) Russian-born Israeli chemist and first president of Israel (1949–52). After studying in Germany and Switzerland, he earned a doctorate in chemistry and patented several dyestuffs before moving to England to teach in 1904. His 1912 discovery of a bacterium that could convert carbohydrate to acetone proved of great value to the British armaments industry in World War I (1914–18), and in return the government aided his negotiations for the Balfour Declaration (1917). In 1919 he obtained an agreement on Jewish-Arab coexistence in Palestine from Faysal I, and in 1920 he became president of the World Zionist Organization, a post from which he was ousted in 1931. He settled in Rehovot, Palestine, in 1937. Despite conflicts with more extreme Zionists, he was sent to the U.S. to secure support for Israel in 1948, and in 1949 he was elected president.