WEIZMANN

WEIZMANN, Russian family, one of whose members, chaim weizmann , became the first president of the State of Israel. There were 15 children in the family. OZER (1850–1911), the head of the family, was a timber transporter and the only Jew appointed starosta (head of the village) in Motol. In about 1894 he moved to Pinsk and succeeded in business there. He was a maskil, versed in Judaism, and an early Zionist, as well as representative to the Sixth Zionist Congress (1903). RACHELLEAH (1852?–1939), his wife, settled in Palestine in 1920 and established the first home for the aged in Haifa. Their daughter ḤAYA (later LICHTENSTEIN; 1878–1959), a teacher, settled in Palestine in 1921 and taught at the Herzlia High School in Tel Aviv, and later in the Levinsky Teachers' Seminary in Tel   Aviv. She was the president of the Benot Berit Society from 1946 to 1950 and published her memoirs in two volumes (1947–48 and 1952–53). Another daughter GITA (later DOUNIE; 1884?–?), a music teacher, studied at the Warsaw Institute of Music (1901–05) and settled in Haifa in 1911. She was one of the founders of the Haifa School of Music (1924), now known as the Dounie-Weizmann Conservatory. A son MOSES (MOSHE; 1879–1957), a chemist, settled in Palestine in 1924, lived in Jerusalem, and in 1947 was appointed the head of the organic chemistry laboratory of The Hebrew University, where he became professor. Another brother, MIKHAIL (YEḤIEL MIKHL; 1892–1957), an agronomist and the father of ezer weizman , settled in Ereẓ Israel in 1914, becoming director of the Palestine Government Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (1920–28) and manager of the Imperial Chemical Industries, Middle Eastern Zone (1928–35). Later he worked independently in industry in the development of Tel Mond. Another brother SAMUEL (SAMUIL; 1882–?), an engineer, joined the Zionist Socialist Workers' Party (Territorialist) c. 1906. He was engaged as an engineer in Kiev and during World War I in the Moscow Machine Tool Factory. After the Russian Revolution he directed industrial plants in Soviet Russia. He died after World War II in a penal camp. ANNA (ḤANNAH; 1886?–1963), a chemist, worked on the staff of the Moscow Institute of Biochemistry. She settled in Palestine in 1933 and was appointed to the staff of the Sieff Research Institute in Reḥovot (later the Weizmann Institute of Science).