WEIZMANN, CHAIM (Hajjilm). — Jewish politician, b. at Motol in the province of Minsk in 1874, d. 9 November 1952. He received his elementary education in the Jewish primary school, then pursued his secondary studies at Pinsk, one of the important centers of Hibbath Sijjôn (v. HÖBHÉBHE SIJJÔN).
He began his university studies in Berlin, where he became acquainted with Herzl’s “political Zionism.” He took part in the first Zionist Congress at Basel in 1897. Opposed to assimilation, he became a supporter of practical Zionism and, with a group that also included Salomone Rappaport, founded the first Swiss Zionist society, hash-Shahar (the dawn), in opposition to the Zionism dominant in the West. In 1900 he obtained a degree in chemistry summa cum laude at Freiburg; he subsequently became a lecturer in Geneva and, in 1904, at Manchester. In England he met the philosopher 'Abad hâ-'Am for the first time. An important invention in the field of explosives brought him into contact with influential figures in the British government, and at the time of the Balfour Declaration he engaged in intense diplomatic activity. At the same time he took part in the campaign to raise funds for the Qeren haj-jissôdh and supported the establishment of the Jewish Agency. In 1928 he concluded an agreement with Emir Fajsal, convinced as he was that there would be sufficient room in Palestine for Jews and Arabs.
In 1920 he was president of the World Zionist Organization; his position, however, was not easy: Ussischkin attacked him, and Jabotinski went into opposition, founding the Revisionist Party (which later became the “New Zionist Organization”), which advocated a firmer and more decisive attitude toward England. In 1931 a motion of no confidence in W.’s policies obtained a majority in the Zionist Congress, and Sokolow was elected president of the Organization in his place. W. then returned to his studies, dividing his time between science and Zionist activity. In 1936 he testified before the Peel Commission and maintained that a Jewish state comprising only part of Palestine could absorb a large number of immigrants and provide means of subsistence for two or three million Jews; he nevertheless continually faced opposition from the American Mizrahi group and the Revisionists. In 1947 the Jewish Agency sent him to Lake Success, and he was therefore present when, on 29 November, the United Nations declared itself in favor of the creation of the State of Israel. On 2 February 1949 he was elected Head of the State of Israel by the Constituent Assembly meeting in Jerusalem. On 3 January 1946 the foundation stone had been laid for the Institute of Scientific Research that now bears his name.