Dr. Chaim Weizmann, chemist, veteran Zionist, former president of the World Zionist Organization and present head of the movement to colonize German Jewish refugees, recently disclosed some of his immediate plans.
Dr. Weizmann, who is now in Palestine on his fifteenth visit, is here primarily in connection with the chemical institute which is being set up at Reheboth. The institute will be part of the Jewish scientific experimental station headed by Dr. I. Wilkansky. The preparations have been directed by a number of outstanding chemists and research workers, some of them German, and by Dr. Weizmann’s first assistant, Dr. Davis, who came here from London several months ago.
Research at the chemical institute will include problems in biological chemistry, physical chemistry, pharmacology and industry, in connection with which the institute will study oranges, tobacco and silk.
Asked whether he would carry on any of the research himself, Dr. Weizmann replied that he had come, this time, for but five weeks, after which he was going to the United States, expecting to be in New York by the first week in May. However, he expects o go back to Recheboth next winter to head the institute and to work on a number of problems, several of them in the field of albumin research.
MAY SETTLE PERMANENTLY
Dr. Weizmann intends to build a house near the institute and hopes to spend the winters there working at the laboratory. He may even, he said, settle permanently in Palestine. Discussing the work of setting German Jews, Dr. Weizmann declared that he still believed ways and means could be found of settling 10,000 refugees a year in Palestine. Asked to comment on the work of James G. McDonald, High commissioner for the Relief of German Refugees, Dr. Weizmann said in effect that Mr. McDonald has only just begun. His plans have not yet been crystallized. He is still groping. But he is undoubtedly taking a great deal of trouble, and it cannot be doubted that he will eventually be convinced, as more and more Jews the world over are becoming convinced, that the only actual solution thus far possible for German Jewry is: Palestine.
Shortly before he came to Palestine Dr. Weizmann met Count theoldi, President of the League Mandate Commission, in London, and immediately thereafter went to Rome where he was received by Premier Mussolini. The problems of the German Jews and the question of Palestine were discussed at that meeting. Dr. Weizmann came away from both talks with the impression that Mussolini and the Count were sympathetic toward the work of building up Palestine.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
