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Israel's offspring
By Gil Hoffman
Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952)
Born in Motol, Russia in 1874. Weizmann studied in Germany and
Switzerland. He taught chemistry at Manchester University in England from
1904 to 1914. While there he discovered a method of producing synthetic
acetone and butyl alcohol (useful in creating explosives), which aided the
British war effort in World War I. Weizmann became a Zionist spokesman in
England and was an influence in the creation of the Balfour Declaration in
1917, in which Britain expressed its commitment to the creation of a Jewish
National Home in Palestine. He 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 Britain.
Weizmann was the leader of the World Zionist Movement from 1920-1930
and from 1935-1946. He was elected the first president of Israel in 1949.
He also helped establish the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the
Weizmann Institute.
Weizmann has two children and one grandchild
Chaim Weizmann was the third of 12 children born to Ezer and Rachel
Weizmann. There are many descendants of Chaim's siblings in Israel. His son
Michael, who was killed in World War II serving in the British Royal Air
Force Coastal Command, didn't have any children. His son Benjamin, who
lived in England, had a son, David. David has two children and they today
live in London.
Chaim's youngest brother Yehiel (Hilik), was the father of President
Ezer Weizman and Yael Allingham. Hilik studied agriculture in Berlin before
coming in 1913 to Israel, where he had a career in forestry and
agriculture. He is credited with starting the planting of pecan trees.
Allingham was one of the first female chemists in Israel - a popular
profession in the family. Another child of the elder Ezer Weizmann, Minna,
was the first female doctor at Hadassah Hospital.
The younger Ezer's daughter, Michal, was questioned in the Edouard
Seroussi probe - in which her father was accused of tax evasion. Ezer's
son, Shauli, died in a car crash.
David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973)
Theodor Herzl (1860-1904)
Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952)
Menachem Begin (1913-1992)
Rabbi Isaac Halevy Herzog (1888-1959)
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