Forthcoming

Chaim Weizmann: A Biography

Jehuda Reinharz & Motti Golani

The complete and definitive biography of Chaim Weizmann, first president of the State
of Israel.

An image of Chaim Weizmann.

This is the first time that the full and sweeping story of Chaim Weizmann has been told. Born a Russian Jew who immigrated to the United Kingdom in the early twentieth century to work as a biochemist, Weizmann went on to lead the World Zionist Organization. Through passion and persistence, and by pure force of character, he gained the support of influential politicians and statesmen, as well as Jews around the world, for the idea of a Jewish state. Weizmann dealt with major British political figures, including prime ministers Arthur Balfour, David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, and Ramsay MacDonald, and with determination and extraordinary charisma, he achieved the commitment of the British government for the Balfour Declaration, which advocated for a “national home” for the Jewish people in Palestine. He met with presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Harry Truman, convincing the United States to recognize the newly formed State of Israel in 1948. In fewer than three decades after he assumed the leadership of the effort to create a Jewish state, he was named Israel’s first president.

In this captivating biography of a seminal figure in world and Jewish history, Weizmann is shown as a man of human foibles – his affairs and infatuations, his political machinations and elitism - as well as a man of admirable qualities – intelligence, wit, charm, and dedication.

 

About the Authors

Jehuda Reinharz was the Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History at Brandeis University, where he served as President for seventeen years. He is the author and coauthor 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. He is the president and chief executive officer of the Jack,
Joseph, and Morton Mandel Foundation.

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

“A scrupulously detailed work chronicles the incremental triumph of Zionism through its
greatest champion.” ― Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Eminently readable and as riveting as a work of fiction." — Ha'aretz

“This exquisitely detailed and rich biography makes a huge contribution not only in
bringing to life this extraordinary and complex figure, but also in animating the difficult
challenges of the Zionist movement.” – A.B. Yehoshua

“An expansive and engrossing study . . . Vast and detailed, Chaim Weizmann captures
Weizmann’s tenacity, shrewd compassion, and the complexities of his diplomatic
mission.” ― Foreword Reviews

"As a chemist, Chaim Weizmann was a man of data and fact. As a diplomat, he was a man of imagination and overarching vision. As a statesman, he employed every facet of his complex intruiging identity to establish the political platform from which the State of Israel would rise. In Chaim Weizmann: A Biography, Jehuda Reinharz and Motti Golani bring to the fore this monumental figure of modern Israeli history in a gripping, precise and humane manner. This riveting account of a man who made Zionism his trade and went on to preside over the Jewish, democratic State of Israel is a very important addition to the collective Jewish library." — Issac Herzog, President of the State of Israel