Chaim Weizmann was a Russian-Jewish biochemist and prominent Zionist leader. He played a crucial role in the establishment of the [[Weizmann Institute of Science]] in [[Rehovot]], [[Israel]]. Weizmann actively sought to bring eminent scientists to [[Israel]], attempting to woo figures like [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]] and [[John von Neumann]] as early as 1947 to conduct research there.[^1] Weizmann was a close friend of [[Ernst David Bergmann]]'s father, one of Berlin's most eminent rabbis. In 1933, when Nazi decrees made it impossible for Bergmann to continue his academic work in Germany, Weizmann arranged for Bergmann to join him on the faculty at Manchester University in England. Weizmann also intervened to help Bergmann find a job in Philadelphia and later in Brooklyn after he left England.[^1] Weizmann was instrumental in setting up Palestine's first research facility, the [[Daniel Sieff Institute]], in the 1930s. He even approached [[Albert Einstein]], then teaching at Princeton, to recommend a director for the institute.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 2.