Dr. Chaim Weizmann

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Chaim Weizmann

 

 

Chaim Weizmann was born in 1874 to a traditional Jewish family in the small town of Motol in White Russia (Belarus). After graduating with honors from the Real-Gymnasium in Pinsk, he decided to establish himself professionally in order to be able to contribute to the development of science in the Land of Israel. He chose to study chemistry in Germany and Switzerland, where he would meet his future wife, Vera, who would become his partner in Zionist activity. In 1899 he was awarded a doctoral degree in organic chemistry by the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

 

Deeply influenced by the views of Ahad Ha’am and Herzl, Weizmann became involved in Zionist activity, alongside Leo Motzkin, Nahman Syrkin, and Shmaryahu Levin. He felt that Judaism implied not merely religion but peoplehood. Possessing their own language, culture, and common historical memory, the Jewish people were entitled to return to their historical land and live there in safety.

 

Weizmann therefore rejected the idea that Uganda could replace the Land of Israel as a homeland for the Jews. At the same time, he began working as a scientist at the University of Manchester in England, a nation which he viewed as one of legal freedoms, moderation, and political realism.

 

In 1907, he visited the Land of Israel to see if industry could be developed there. Those were hard times for Jewish immigrants, who were working to cultivate the land while draining swamps and fighting malaria. That first visit strengthened his conviction that both political lobbying and settlement of the land were critical to the establishment of the State of Israel. This combined approach would later become known as “synthetic Zionism.”

 

Weizmann is known to have said during that time: “If everything is progressing so poorly, then the fault lies neither with the Land of Israel nor with the political situation, but solely with us!” Shortly afterward, he launched a campaign to explain the hardships and rights of the Jewish people.

 

Thanks to his determination and great  personal charm, he met members of the British government and gained their good will. Afterwards, his invention of a new method of producing acetone from corn, which contributed to the British war effort in World War I, would add to his prestige and open new doors for him in the British cabinet. During those years he used to say: “Politics is the sense of smell, to predict what can – and what cannot – be achieved. One should demand only that which can be achieved.”

 

A skilled negotiator, Weizmann secured for himself the status of representative of a government in exile. That was how he obtained, with arduous effort, the coveted Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917. In it, the British government recognized the right of the Jewish people to establish a national home in the Land of Israel. Weizmann: “We begin a new chapter. From now on, we – the Jews – will determine how the Declaration is to be translated into reality.”

 

As befits a scientist, Weizmann pursued his goals systematically, step by step. Once the declared right to the territory was obtained, he worked to strengthen and anchor it in reality.

 

He departed for the Land of Israel at the head of a delegation under British government auspices, and found the Jewish settlers engaged in the dynamic process of building and aliyah. Tel Aviv, the first Hebrew city, arose from the sands.

 

Understanding that Jews and Arabs would have to live together in the Land of Israel, Weizmann strove to create peaceful coexistence between the two peoples. Thus he met in Aqaba with Emir Faisal, leader of the Arab national movement. Faisal expressed sympathy for the Zionist cause, which he felt was similar to the Arabs’ national

aspirations.