Chaim Weizmann

Chaim Weizmann’s autobiography is a highly personal account of his life in the Zionist movement. Book One, completed in 1941, covers the years 1874-1917 and Book Two covers the years 1918-1948. Weizmann describes the Russian shtetl where he was born in 1874, his schooling in Pinsk and his university studies in Berlin, Geneva and Freiburg (Switzerland) where he received his PhD in chemistry in 1899 before moving to Manchester in 1904. He portrays many leading Zionists such as Theodor Herzl, Achad Ha-am, Max Nordau, Shmarya Levin, Ussishkin, Jabotinsky, Ruppin. He describes the opposition by assimilationist Jews (like Edwin Montagu) to Zionism, and internal debates within the Zionist movement, such as the defeat of Herzl’s Uganda plan — bitterly opposed by Weizmann — at the 6th Zionist Congress (1903) and his frictions with the American Zionists led by Brandeis. Weizmann describes how, during World War I, his work on acetone brought him into contact with British political leaders such as Lloyd George, Arthur Balfour and Winston Churchill and facilitated the Balfour Declaration which, in 1917, paved the way for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. Weizmann recounts his role in the creation of what would become Israel’s leading scientific institutions, the Hebrew University, the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Technion, including his fundraising efforts in Europe and in the United States on their behalf and for other Zionist initiatives. He became the first President of Israel, and died in office in 1952. “... one of the important historical documents of our time.” — Orville Prescott, The New York Times (January 19, 1949) “[Trial and Error] is likely to be read for many years to come as an authoritative exposition of the Zionist movement ... records eye-witness accounts of so many crucial events and reflects so many deep insights that it is certain to become of permanent value to the scholar and a delight to the general reader.” — Salo Baron, The New York Times (January 23, 1949) “There are four angles from which one can approach this book. One can take it as a history of Zionism during the last seventy years... a record of personal endeavour triumphant over obstacles and dissension... a sad commentary upon human achievement, when eventual triumph comes at a date, and in circumstances, which rob it of its full savour... the self-portrait of a most remarkable man.” — Harold Nicolson, The Observer (March 27, 1949) “Notable in this intellectually candid record is the fact that [Weizmann] embraced and propagated Jewish nationalism because he regarded it as a positive good, not merely a negative escape from gentile persecution. This intensely human book, which in a sense is the story of modern Zionism, constitutes one of the indispensable sources for the history of our times.” — Robert Gale Woolbert, Foreign Affairs (July 1949) “[Weizmann’s] autobiography ... is an astonishingly objective and life-like narrative, without a trace of dramatization, exaggeration, vanity, self-pity, self-justification; it conveys his authentic, richly and evenly developed, autonomous, proud, firmly built, somewhat ironical nature, free from inner conflict, in deep, instinctive harmony with the forces of nature and society, and therefore possessed of natural wisdom, dignity and authority.” — Sir Isaiah Berlin, Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, Oxford University (November 19, 1957) “Ranks between Churchill’s war memoirs and those of Nehru, Masaryk and Trotzky, among the founders’ own stories ... above all a human book, the record of the experiences and reactions of a man who fought over issues that were important” — Congress Bulletin (April 1949)

Chaim Weizmann’s autobiography is a highly personal account of his life in the Zionist movement. Book One, completed in 1941, covers the years 1874-1917 and Book Two covers the years 1918-1948. Weizmann describes the Russian shtetl where he was born in 1874, his schooling in Pinsk and his university studies in Berlin, Geneva and Freiburg (Switzerland) where he received his PhD in chemistry in 1899 before moving to Manchester in 1904. He portrays many leading Zionists such as Theodor Herzl, Achad Ha-am, Max Nordau, Shmarya Levin, Ussishkin, Jabotinsky, Ruppin. He describes the opposition by assimilationist Jews (like Edwin Montagu) to Zionism, and internal debates within the Zionist movement, such as the defeat of Herzl’s Uganda plan — bitterly opposed by Weizmann — at the 6th Zionist Congress (1903) and his frictions with the American Zionists led by Brandeis. Weizmann describes how, during World War I, his work on acetone brought him into contact with British political leaders such as Lloyd George, Arthur Balfour and Winston Churchill and facilitated the Balfour Declaration which, in 1917, paved the way for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. Weizmann recounts his role in the creation of what would become Israel’s leading scientific institutions, the Hebrew University, the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Technion, including his fundraising efforts in Europe and in the United States on their behalf and for other Zionist initiatives. He became the first President of Israel, and died in office in 1952. “... one of the important historical documents of our time.” — Orville Prescott, The New York Times (January 19, 1949) “[Trial and Error] is likely to be read for many years to come as an authoritative exposition of the Zionist movement ... records eye-witness accounts of so many crucial events and reflects so many deep insights that it is certain to become of permanent value to the scholar and a delight to the general reader.” — Salo Baron, The New York Times (January 23, 1949) “There are four angles from which one can approach this book. One can take it as a history of Zionism during the last seventy years... a record of personal endeavour triumphant over obstacles and dissension... a sad commentary upon human achievement, when eventual triumph comes at a date, and in circumstances, which rob it of its full savour... the self-portrait of a most remarkable man.” — Harold Nicolson, The Observer (March 27, 1949) “Notable in this intellectually candid record is the fact that [Weizmann] embraced and propagated Jewish nationalism because he regarded it as a positive good, not merely a negative escape from gentile persecution. This intensely human book, which in a sense is the story of modern Zionism, constitutes one of the indispensable sources for the history of our times.” — Robert Gale Woolbert, Foreign Affairs (July 1949) “[Weizmann’s] autobiography ... is an astonishingly objective and life-like narrative, without a trace of dramatization, exaggeration, vanity, self-pity, self-justification; it conveys his authentic, richly and evenly developed, autonomous, proud, firmly built, somewhat ironical nature, free from inner conflict, in deep, instinctive harmony with the forces of nature and society, and therefore possessed of natural wisdom, dignity and authority.” — Sir Isaiah Berlin, Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, Oxford University (November 19, 1957) “Ranks between Churchill’s war memoirs and those of Nehru, Masaryk and Trotzky, among the founders’ own stories ... above all a human book, the record of the experiences and reactions of a man who fought over issues that were important” — Congress Bulletin (April 1949)

Although the Jewish people were not technically part of the reparations, dissolution, and remaking of new countries after WWI, they took the opportunity to express their needs and carve out a solution for a homeland. This process took almost thirty years, but it was started at the Paris Peace Conferences by the tenacity, vision, and startling diplomacy of Chaim Weizmann. Attracting both strong support and opposition in the West, Weizmann presented the Zionist position, finally securing the British Mandate for Palestine in 1922. This is an important book for anyone who seeks to understand the aspirations and eventually realized dreams of the Zionist movement and the founding of the Israeli state as we know it today.

In the pantheon of modern Jewish leaders, Chaim Weizmann is a giant. One of the founding fathers of the state of Israel and its first president, he was also a president of the World Zionist Organization and a chemist of the first rank, for whom Israel's renowned Weizmann Institute of Science was named. Yet there has never been a scholarly biography of Weizmann. His own autobiography, Trial and Error, written largely from memory, is riddled with errors. Here at last is a book by an authority on the history of Zionism that fills the gaps in our knowledge. A biography of Weizmann is in many ways a history of the Jewish people in the modern period. This book delves into the factors that shaped Weizmann's personality and world view. It analyzes his relations with his family and other men and women, among them the major Jewish personalities of his day. In the process it deals with the tensions between Zionists and anti-Zionists, the impact of Zionism on the Eastern and Western Jewish communities, and the role of British, French, and German governments during various phases of the movement to establish a Jewish homeland. The book also pays much attention to Weizmann's scientific work. This volume ends with Weizmann at the age of 40 on the eve of World War I, when he was thrust into the center stage of world politics as a major negotiator for the Balfour Declaration. A subsequent volume will cover the remainder of his life. About the Author: Jehuda Reinharz is Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History and Director of the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry at Brandies University. He is author of Fatherland or Promised Land: The Dilemma of the German Jew, 1893-1914 and the editor of The Letters and Papers of Chaim Weizmann, 1918-1920

These two volumes of the papers of Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, are essential for a complete understanding of Weizmann's thinking as a Jew, as a scientist, and as a political leader. They present statements deeply thought out, often polished before delivery, and intended for insertion into an historical record. This selection, which spans his life from 1898-1952, includes speeches (many of them to closed audiences and not previously published), private interviews, evidence before investigating committees, minutes of meetings, meirtbranda, and newspaper articles. It is evident from these papers that Weizmann had a larger vision of an audience before him: whether it be a group of listeners, a mass of readers, a government department, or an influential interlocuter. The earliest documents represent Weizmann's ideas alone; later ones reflect the views of like-minded Zionists and express the collective striving of his nation. These papers, together with the previously published twenty-three volumes of the letters of Chaim Weizmann, constitute a matchless commentary on over sixty years of dedication to building a nation-state on moral foundations.

A glowing account of the heroic struggles, moral rectitude, deserved triumphs, and unfair disappointments of the leader of the Zionist movement and Israel's first president (1874-1952). A major biography. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

These two volumes of the papers of Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, are essential for a complete understanding of Weizmann's thinking as a Jew, as a scientist, and as a political leader. They present statements deeply thought out, often polished before delivery, and intended for insertion into an historical record. This selection, which spans his life from 1898-1952, includes speeches (many of them to closed audiences and not previously published), private interviews, evidence before investigating committees, minutes of meetings, meirtbranda, and newspaper articles. It is evident from these papers that Weizmann had a larger vision of an audience before him: whether it be a group of listeners, a mass of readers, a government department, or an influential interlocuter. The earliest documents represent Weizmann's ideas alone; later ones reflect the views of like-minded Zionists and express the collective striving of his nation. These papers, together with the previously published twenty-three volumes of the letters of Chaim Weizmann, constitute a matchless commentary on over sixty years of dedication to building a nation-state on moral foundations.