Chaim Weizmann: A Biography

Jehuda Reinharz and Motti Golani

Translated by Haim Watzman

PUBLICATION DATE: 16 MAY 2023 | BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY PRESS | HARDBACK | £18.99

Chaim Weizmann: A Biography is the definitive and thoroughly researched biography of Israel’s first president – and a leading figure of twentieth-century Zionism – from historians Jehuda Reinharz and Motti Golani. Completely revised and updated, it brings together Reinharz’s previous two volumes with a third unpublished volume, published in English for the first time.

The narrative follows Weizmann’s life from childhood in Belorussia and his university days in Germany, where he was first exposed to the issues of Zionism and anti-Semitism, before his arrival in Britain where he became a major figure in Zionist politics. Reinharz and Golani examine what are considered to be his most significant achievements including the Balfour Declaration – which advocated for a Jewish State during the First World War – the founding of the Hebrew University, and the British Mandate for Palestine. They also assess Weizmann’s work in the 1930s and 1940s, outlining his role in the debate over Palestinian partition and his efforts to create the Jewish state.

Weizmann, who came to the UK to work as a biochemist in 1904, was soon thrust into the centre stage of world politics as a major negotiator. His charismatic personality and the fact that he didn’t represent any country or was aligned to any one political party made him a powerful and unique confidant. From the First World War onwards he was in regular communication with British political figures, including prime ministers Arthur James Balfour, David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, and Ramsay MacDonald. He also met all presidents of the United States from Woodrow Wilson to Harry Truman.

Throughout the book Weizmann is shown as a man with deep flaws – his infatuations, political machinations, and elitism – but also with admirable qualities: intelligence, wit, charisma, and dedication.

This biography of Weizmann is in many ways a history of the Jewish people in the first half of the twentieth century. It delves into the factors that shaped Weizmann’s personality and world view. An important historical record, it analyses his relations with his family and major Jewish personalities of the day as well as the tensions between Zionists and anti-Zionists, the impact of Zionism on the Eastern and Western Jewish communities, and the role of British, French, German and US governments during various phases of the movement to establish a Jewish homeland.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Jehuda Reinharz is Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History at Brandeis University and the author and co-author of more than thirty books in Jewish studies, including The Road to September 1939: Polish Jews, Zionists, and the Yishuv on the Eve of World War II and Zionism and the Creation of a New Society.

Motti Golani is Ruhama Rosenberg Professor for Jewish History and head of the Chaim Weizmann Institute for the Study of Zionism and Israel at Tel Aviv University. He has authored and co-authored over a dozen books, including Two Sides of the Coin: Independence and Nakba 1948; Two Narratives of the 1948 War and its Outcome and Palestine Between Politics and Terror, 1945–1947.