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Museums in Israel: Chaim Weizmann Museum

Chaim Weizmann was a chemist, statesman, President of the World Zionist Organization, and the first President of Israel

He became famous because he was the first to find out how to use bacterial fermentation to produce large quantities of the desired substances and is nowadays considered to be the father of industrial fermentation.

In 1917, he worked with Lord Balfour on the Balfour Declaration. A founder of so-called synthetic Zionism, Weizmann supported grass-roots colonization efforts as well as higher-level diplomatic activity. Siding with neither Labor Zionism on the left nor Revisionist Zionism on the right, Weizmann was generally associated with the centrist General Zionists.

On January 3, 1919, he and King Faisal I of Iraq signed the Weizmann-Faisal Agreement establishing the relations between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. When Israel was founded in 1948, Weizmann became the first president.

At Rehovoth, where he lived, Weizmann founded a research institute (now the Weizmann Institute of Science).

The museum itself tells the story of Weizmann's life through photographs, documents, and memorabilia. The Chaim Weizmann Museum also offers a short film screening upon entering the building. The film gives a background of Chaim Weizmann and is called "A King without a Kingdom."

The Chaim Weizmann Museum is open Sunday, 10-4; Monday through Thursday, 9-4.

The museum is located in the Weizmann Institute of Science campus. There is an entrance fee.

Phone number: 972-8-9344500


Sources: ilMuseums; Wikipedia