WEIZMANN, CHAIM (Hajjim). - Jewish political figure, b. at Motol in the province of Minsk in 1874, d. 9 Nov. 1952. He received his first education in a Jewish elementary school, then pursued his secondary studies in Pinsk, one of the important centers of Hibbath Sjijön (v. SION (EBR. ŠIJJÔN)).
He began his university studies in Berlin, where he became acquainted with Theodor Herzl’s “political Zionism.” He took part in the first Zionist Congress at Basel in 1897. Opposed to assimilation, he became an advocate of practical Zionism and, with a group that included Solomon Rapaport, founded the first Zionist society in Switzerland, Hab-Shaar (the Dawn), in contrast to the dominant Zionism of the West. In 1900 he earned a doctorate in chemistry summa cum laude at Freiburg; he then served as a lecturer at Geneva and in 1904 at Manchester. In England he first met the philosopher ‘Ahad hā’-Am. 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 participated in the campaign to raise funds for the Qeren haj-jésodh and supported the founding of the Jewish Agency. In 1928 he concluded an agreement with Emir Faisal, convinced as he was that there would be sufficient room in Palestine for both Jews and Arabs.
In 1920 he became president of the World Zionist Organization; his position, however, was not an easy one: Ussishkin attacked him, and Jabotinsky went into opposition by founding the Revisionist Party (which later became the “New Zionist Organization”), advocating a firmer and more decisive stance toward Britain. In 1931 a vote of no confidence in W.’s policy won 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 argued that a Jewish state comprising only part of Palestine could absorb a large number of immigrants and provide a livelihood for two or three million Jews; he nevertheless always faced opposition from the American Mizrahi group and the Revisionists. In 1947 the Jewish Agency sent him to Lake Success, and he was present on 29 Nov. when the United Nations declared in favor of the creation of the State of Israel. On 2 Feb. 1949 he was elected President of the State of Israel by the Constituent Assembly convened in Jerusalem. On 3 Jan. 1946 the cornerstone was laid for the Institute of Scientific Research, now bearing his name.