Chaim Weizmann חיים ויצמן

Chaim Weizmann was born in 5635 in the town of Motol in Belarus, was educated in Germany and Switzerland, and became a chemist at Manchester University. He joined Zionism early, among the "practicals" who insisted on building in the Land of Israel rather than waiting for a charter—yet proved to be the movement's finest diplomat.

During the First World War he developed a bacterial process for producing acetone, essential to smokeless powder, which the British government urgently needed. It opened doors to Lloyd George and Balfour. In 5678 came the Balfour Declaration, the British promise to facilitate a "national home" for the Jewish people in Palestine.

Weizmann led the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency, negotiating with London for decades and often losing—the White Paper of 5699 closed immigration on the eve of the Holocaust. In 5707 he appeared before the United Nations and secured the inclusion of the Negev in the future state.

He founded the research institute at Rehovot that bears his name.