| AdminHistory | Born Motol, Belarus, third child of Ozer Weizmann, a timber transporter, and his wife Rachel-Leah Tchemerinsky, 1874; educated at the Gymnasium in Pinsk, Darmstadt Polytechnic, the Institute of Technology in Charlottenburg, specializing in organic chemistry, and the University of Fribourg (PhD); assistant lecturer at the University of Geneva, 1901-1904; took up a junior position at Manchester University, 1904; appointed senior lecturer, 1907; appointed to a readership in biochemistry, 1913; Director of Admiralty Laboratories, 1916-1919; Honorary Adviser to the British Ministry of Supply, 1939-1945; married Vera Chatzmann, a doctor, 1906; two sons; naturalized British subject, 1910; involved in Zionism since his student days in Berlin and became a prominent figure in the Zionist Movement; elected to the Larger Actions Committee (later the General Zionist Council), 1905; elected Vice-President, English Zionist Federation, 1911, Chairman, 1917; negotiations with the British government in 1917 led to the Balfour Declaration; appointed head of the Zionist Commission sent to Palestine by the British government, 1918; helped to found the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Chairman of its Board of Governors, 1932-1950; led the Zionist delegation to the Peace Conference at Versailles, 1919; President, World Zionist Organisation, 1920-1931, 1935-1946; founded the Sieff (later Weizmann) Institute of Science in Rehovot in the early 1930s; emigrated to Palestine, 1937; President, Provisional Council of the State of Israel, 1948-1949; first President of Israel, 1949-1952; died 1952. Publications include 'Devarim', a selection of speeches (1937); an autobiography, 'Trial and Error' (1949); and articles in various chemical journals. |