Dr. Weizmann Left Mark on World As Statesman and Scientist

Dr. Chaim Weizmann, first President of the modern State of Israel and veteran Zionist leader, left his mark on the Jewish and non-Jewish world as a scientist, statesman, organizer and administrator. The contributions of countless Jews in all parts of the world were, in the eyes of many, brought to a synthesis in the chemist whose contributions to a world at peace and at war paralleled his position as the diplomatic representative of the Jewish people who — until his 73rd year — had no state machinery, no army, no navy and no treasury to give him support.

The man who was destined to interpret to the non-Jewish world the hopes and ambitions of the Jewish nation was born in the small Russian town of Motyli in 1874. His early education he obtained in Russia, but his university education he received in Germany and later in Switzerland where he earned his doctorate in chemistry. During his student years he made an important chemical discovery connected with the manufacture of dyes. In 1901 he was appointed a chemistry instructor at the University of Manchester, in England, a position which was to effect the course of his life most profoundly.

His active Zionist life began with the organization of Russian Jewry to answer the call of Theodor Herzl and send delegates to the first Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland, in 1897. Weizmann himself missed the first Congress because he did not have the funds to travel directly to Basle and arrived after the Congress had concluded.

Weizmann’s first major contribution on the world Zionist scene came at the Fifth World Zionist Congress when he helped organize the “Democratic Fraction” in opposition to Theodor Herzl. He also opposed the famed Zionist leader in 1903 when Herzl proposed that the Zionists accept an offer by the British that they settle in Uganda, East Africa.

In the next ten years Weizmann’s activities in the Zionist movement were widespread. His political activities, however, were not permitted to overshadow his efforts in the cultural and scientific field in behalf of the Jewish people. In 1913 he was active in the founding of a fund for the establishment of the Hebrew University, whose cornerstone he laid on Mt. Scopus in 1918. Years later he became president of the University.

MADE GIGANTIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO BRITISH WAR EFFORT

During the war years, the chemist was not neglected while the Zionist worked. Dr. Weizmann made gigantic contributions to the British war effort, including the discovery of a formula for acetone, an important ingredient of explosives. Although offered personal reward, Weizmann would accept nothing for himself. However, he took advantage of the contacts he was developing with British leaders in all walks of the government to press for the creation of a Jewish homeland. Negotiations begun in 1914 paid off in 1918 when the famous Balfour Declaration told the world of Britain’s guarantee of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

The next year Weizmann headed a Zionist delegation to the Allied peace conference. The following year he was elected president of the World Zionist Organization, a position which he held for eleven years. Responsible in large measure for the organization of the Palestine Foundation Fund, he also pressed for and obtained the expansion of the Jewish Agency to include non-Zionists. He was elected to head the new Council of the Agency in 1929.

He first visited the United States in 1921 in behalf of the Zionist movement. This visit he repeated annually until 1929. In 1932 he toured the Union of South Africa and revisited the U.S. in 1933. Then once again the scientist in Weizmann came to the fore and in 1934 he helped organize the Daniel Sieff Research Institute at Rehovoth, where he eventually made his home. This became the forerunner of the Weizmann Institute of Science, renowned throughout the world as the best scientific research center in the Middle East, the equal of any in Europe and rarely surpassed by scientific institutions in the United States.

AIDED ALLIES IN WORLD WAR II; THANKED BY U. S. GOVERNMENT

During the next decade Weizmann, the Zionist was busy criticizing the British administration in Palestine and, finally, taking the leadership in the movement to resist British attempts to limit the Jewish community in Palestine. That decade saw the years of World War II and Weizmann’s contributions to the Allied war effort were again outstanding. Some of them are still in the realm of “top secrets,” but Dr. Weizmann was publicly thanked by American governmental leaders for his aid in the development of synthetic rubber, a product that went far toward making possible the Allied victory on four continents and many seas.

The aged Weizmann was still not allowed to rest and in 1946 he took the stand as Zionism’s foremost spokesman, testifying before the Joint Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry on Palestine. The following year he appeared before the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, which eventually recommended the partition of Palestine, and later that year the almost blind leader stood before the U. N. General Assembly to plead his people’s cause.

The results are in the history books. On November 29, 1947, the U. N. decided in favor of partition and the establishment of a Jewish state. The following May 18, four days after the Jewish state had been proclaimed and while the Arab armies were already tearing at the body of newborn Israel, the first session of the first Jewish Parliament in nearly 2, 000 years elected Chaim Weizmann the first President of Israel. He was reelected President in November 1951.

The most complete tribute to Weizmann was a simple statement made by David Ben Gurion on May 15, 1948: “Whether he holds an official position or not, whether one agrees with his views or not, he will always remain the chosen leader of his people. No man living has contributed so much to the constructive achievements and political gains of the Zionist movement as Dr. Chaim Weizmann.”