The political achievements of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the late first President of Israel, and his place in Jewish history–as well as the outstanding position he attained in the world of science–were emphasized here tonight at a commemorative Assembly held at the Columbia University on the 10th anniversary of his death.
An overflow audience of Jewish communal leaders and scholars attended the assembly which was sponsored by Columbia University with the cooperation of the Jewish Agency for Israel. Principal speakers at the gathering were Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization, Richard H.S. Crossman, member of the British House of Commons, and Professor David Rittenberg, chairman of the Biochemistry Department of Columbia University were the speakers. Professor Salo Baron, director of the Center of Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University delivered the introductory remarks.
Dr. Goldmann said that Dr. Weizmann “taught the Jewish people to rely primarily on its own efforts, not to think that the Balfour Declaration meant that Great Britain would make a gift of a Jewish homeland to the Jewish people but that all political achievements create only opportunities which become realities if the people involved make use of the opportunities.” Dr. Goldmann added that “to maintain the necessary balance between the vision as the final idea and the slow day to day progressing realization of this drama was his main message and legacy.”
Mr. Crossman told the assembly that “the decisive factor” in obtaining the Balfour Declaration, which committed Britain to support of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, was Dr. Weizmann’s success in impressing the then Premier Lloyd George and Lord Balfour “with the strength of the demand throughout world Jewry for a return to Zion.” He said he felt that Dr. Weizmann, if he was alive today, would be “deeply disturbed” by “the ideological conflicts which so often now disturb the relation of Israel in the Diaspora and in particular by certain Israeli attitudes toward Zionism.”
Dr. Rittenberg described Dr. Weizmann as “an intensely practical man” who was nevertheless “able on many occasions to detach himself from this world and immerse himself in the world of pure science.” His establishment of the Weizmann Institute in Israel was “one of his great contributions to Israel,” Dr. Rittenberg said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
