Weizmann, Chaim, << VYTS mahn or WYTS muhn, KY ihm >> (1874-1952), served as the first president of Israel from 1949 until his death on Nov. 9, 1952. From 1920 to 1930 and from 1935 to 1946, Weizmann was president of the World Zionist Organization. This organization worked to establish a national homeland in Palestine for the Jewish people. Weizmann headed the Jewish delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, and worked there to have the League of Nations assign administration of Palestine to the United Kingdom. In 1917, the United Kingdom had issued the Balfour Declaration, which supported the idea of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine (see Balfour Declaration ). His nephew Ezer Weizman was president of Israel from 1993 to 2000.
Weizmann was born on Nov. 27, 1874, in Motol, Russia, and he was educated in Germany and Switzerland. He taught chemistry at Manchester University in England from 1904 to 1914. During World War I (1914-1918), Weizmann discovered an improved method of making acetone and butyl alcohol for explosives. This discovery aided the United Kingdom’s war effort.
