A spokesman for the Weizmann Institute branded as “calumny” today Soviet press charges that the late Dr. Chaim Weizmann “appropriated” Soviet discoveries and inventions in the field of chemistry.
The spokesman, in his comment, noted that Israel’s first President, who had been a world-famous chemist, had never visited the Soviet Union. It was suggested that the latest Soviet smear was part of the Kremlin’s anti-Israel campaign aimed at diminishing the desire of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel. Visitors to the Soviet Union have returned with reports that Soviet Jews take great pride in Israel’s scientific achievements.
The Weizmann Institute spokesman pointed out that Dr. Weizmann emigrated from Czarist Russia in 1900 and visited Russia for family reasons and on Zionist missions a few times but never after the Bolshevik revolution. He said Dr. Weizmann had no access whatever to Soviet research projects.
He said the only likely explanation for the Soviet attack on Dr. Weizmann’s integrity was that the memory of Israel’s first President “is widely revered until this day among Soviet Jews. ” Adding that Dr. Weizmann became “a legendary figure” to the Jewish community in Russia, the spokesman said that Moscow was “now making an attempt to destroy the Weizmann legend there. “
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.
