Chaim Weizmann

File:Weizmann Truman 1948.jpg

Chaim Weizmann

Haim Azriel Weizman (Hebrew: חיים עזריאל ויצמן, also known as Chaijim Weizmann or Chaim Weizmann, November 27, 1874 – November 9, 1952) was a chemist, statesman, President of the World Zionist Organization, first President of Israel (elected February 1, 1949, served 1949 - 1952) and founder of a research institute in Israel that eventually became the Weizmann Institute of Science. Weizmann was not only Israel's first President but from 1918 onwards he played a major role in events that would eventually lead to the nation's birth. When Israel declared its independence, a life's dream was realized for this

Biography

Weizman was born in the small village of Motol (Motyli, now Motal') near Pinsk (Russian Empire, now in Belarus) and graduated in chemistry from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland in 1899. He lectured in chemistry at the University of Geneva (1901-3) and later taught at the University of Manchester.

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 because he discovered how to use bacterial fermentation (biochemistry)|fermentation to produce large quantities of desired substances and is nowadays considered to be the father of industrial fermentation. He used the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum (the Weizman organism) to produce acetone. Acetone was used in the manufacture of cordite explosive propellants critical to the Allied war effort (see Royal Navy Cordite Factory, Holton Heath). Weizman transferred the rights to the manufacture of acetone to Commercial Solvents Corporation in exchange for royalties.

Weizman and the Balfour Declaration

In 1917, during World War I he worked with Lord Balfour on the Balfour Declaration. He had first met Balfour as early as 1906, the year that Britain offered Uganda as a possible location of a Jewish homeland. During that first meeting, Balfour leader was impressed by Weizmann's personality, and asked him why why Palestine—and Palestine alone—could be the basis for Zionism. "Anything else would be idolatry," Weizmann protested, adding, "Mr. Balfour, supposing I were to offer you Paris instead of London, would you take it?" "But Dr. Weizmann," Balfour retorted, "we have London," to which Weizmann rejoined, "That is true, but we had Jerusalem when London was a marsh."[10] As a chemist, Weizman had invented a process to produce cordite without using calcium acetate, which Germany possessed and Britain did not. . Without cordite, Britain may have lost World War I, so Wezman's process was necessary for the ar-effort. When Balfour asked what payment Weizmann required for the use of his process, Weizmann responded, "There is only one thing I want: A national home for my people." He eventually received both payments for his discovery and a role in the history of the origins of the state of Israel. The Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917 committed the British Government to assisting in the creation of a Jewish homeland within what was then the Ottoman territory of Palestine, part of the provine of Greater Syria. Anticipating victory over the Ottomans, the French and the British had already staked their claims to those territories in which they had particular interests, whether strategic or commerical or both in the Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 16, 1916. Britain was to administer Palestine, so the Balfour Declaration was more than a paper promise. Britain, however, had also made certain promises regarding territory to the May 16, 1916Sharif of Mecca, Emir Hussein so in the post-war context, Britain had to work out a compromise.

1918. Emir Feisal I and Haim Weizman (left, also wearing Arab garb as a sign of friendship)

Meeting with Arab Leaders

On January 3, 1919, he and the future King Faisal I of Iraq signed the Faisal Weizman Agreement establishing relations between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. Weizman knew that Arab support would significantly help the process of increased Jewish settlement in Palestine. Faisal, expecting to be rewarded with significant territory in return for aiding the British, agreed to support Jewish settlement in return for Jewish aid in establishing the infrastructure of what he believed would be a very large Arab state. Prudency suggested that the international Zionist movement could prove to be a usewful ally, given the skills and wealth of many of its members. The Emir was not especially concerned about the views of Arabs in Palestine, who would actually oppose the Balfour Declaration and the subsequent British Mandate of Palestine. Effectively, the Agreement only lasted a few months, since this relationship did not survive the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 at which Weizman led a Zionist delegation pleading for a homeland in Palestine and Feisal an Arab delegation pleading for an independent Aran state including Palestine.

Weizman at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919

Weizman was a leader of the Jewish delegation that presented the case for a Jewish homeland to the Allied leaders as they deliberatd how to divide up former German and Ottoman possessions, although Britain and France had already staked their own claims in their private Agreement. At Paris, Weizman co-presented a Statement, togther with a map of the proposed homeland. This clashed with the expectation of Faisal's Arab delegation that his state would include Palestine. The Jewish statement supported the creation of a mandate entrusted to Britain, pointng out that:

The preference on the part of the Jews for a British Trusteeship is unquestionably the result of the peculiar relationship of England to he Jewish Palestinian problem. The return of the Jews to Zion has not only been a remarkable feature in English literature, but in the domain of statecraft it has played its part, beginning with the readmission of the Jews under Cromwell II manifested itself particularly in the 19th century in the instructions given to British Consular representatives in the Orient after the Damascus Incident; in the various Jewish Palestinian projects suggested by English non-Jews prior to 1881; in the letters of endorsement and support given by members of the Royal Family and Officers of the Government to Lawrence Oliphant; and finally, in the three consecutive acts which definitely associated Great Britain with Zionism in the minds of the Jews, viz - The El Arish offer in 1901; the East African offer in 1903, and lastly the British Declaration in favour of a Jewish National Home in Palestine in 1917. Moreover, the Jews who have gained political experience in many lands under a great variety of governmental systems, whole-heartedly appreciate the aadvanced and liberal policies adopted by Great Britain in her modern colonial administration..

The newly formed League of Nations ratified the British Mandate for Palestine on 24 July, 1922. The mandate required Britain to "secure the establishment of the Jewish national home" while at the same time "safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion". . Palestinian Arabs, Christian as well as Muslim, had started to protest against the Mandate since the Peace Conference had ended. The Hashemite family of Emir Hussein had expected Syria, Palestine as well as continuin to rule the Hejaz, and briefly controlled the former and the latter. However, France had laid its stake on Syria and Hussein was forced into exile by Prince Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud who founded Saudi Arabia. I 1921, the British made Emir Feisal King of Iraq, and his brother, as-Sayyid Abdullah king of Trans-Jordan. Both territories were carved from out of their mandated portion of the former Ottoman Empire.

The Pee;e Commission

In 1936 he addressed the Peel Commission, set up by Stanley Baldwin, whose job it was to consider the working of the British Mandate of Palestine. He remained convinced that the Commission offered new hope to the Zionist movement.

During World War II, he was an honorary adviser to the British Ministry of Supply and did research on synthetic rubber and Octane rating|high-octane gasoline. (Formerly Allied-controlled sources of rubber were largely inaccessible owing to Japanese occupation during World War II, giving rise to heightened interest in such innovations.)

First President of Israel

He met with United States President Harry Truman and worked to obtain the support of the United States for the establishment of the State of Israel. Weizman became the first President of Israel in 1949. At Rehovot, where he lived, Weizman founded a research institute (now the Weizmann Institute of Science). He wrote many papers for scientific journals. His nephew Ezer Weizman also became president of Israel.

Chaim Weizman AZA

The international jewish youthgroup known as the Aleph Zadik Aleph have two chapters named after Chaim Weizman, Chaim Weizman AZA #360 (also known as CWAZA) in Portland, Oregon and Chaim Weizmann AZA #1510 (aslo known as CW1510) in Omaha, Nebraska.

See also

• Maria Weizman

External links

• Biography at the Jewish Agency site. Retrieved 16 June 2007
• Biographical notes at the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Weizman Institute of Science Website
• Webpage on Haim Weizman's laboratory at the Weizman Institute (includes info and links on Weizman's scientific work)

Preceded by: David Ben-Gurion	Chairmen of the Provisional State Council May 17, 1948 - February 17, 1949	Succeeded by: ceased to exist
Preceded by: new title	President of Israel February 1, 1949 - 9 November 1952	Succeeded by: Yitzhak Ben-Zvi

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