Chaim Weizmann

Chaim Weizmann (born Nov. 27, 1874, Motol, Pol., Russian Empire [now in Belarus]—died Nov. 9, 1952, Reḥovot, Israel) was the first president of the new nation of Israel (1949–52), who was for decades the guiding spirit behind the World Zionist Organization. Chaim Azriel Weizmann was born of humble parents in November 1874, in Motol, a backwater hamlet in the western Russian empire, the third of 15 children of Ezer Weizmann, a lumber transporter. Motol lay...