---
born: 1915-05-30
category: Nuclear Scientists & Programs
died: 1994-10-21
location: Detroit, Michigan
summary: President Kennedy's science adviser who was deliberately excluded from intelligence
  about Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor at David Ben-Gurion's request.
tags:
- Person
- Nuclear
- Israel
---

Jerome B. Wiesner was President [John F. Kennedy](/people/john-f-kennedy/)'s science adviser. He was Jewish, but was totally cut out of the intelligence about [Dimona](/places/dimona/), and assumed that [David Ben-Gurion](/people/david-ben-gurion/) had requested that he not deal with that issue in the White House. Wiesner played a major role on disarmament issues for the [Kennedy](/people/john-f-kennedy/) administration and had served as a board member of the [Weizmann Institute of Science](/organizations/weizmann-institute-of-science/). He frequently ran into Ben-Gurion on visits to [Israel](/places/israel/), who would always ask him two questions: "Can computers think? And should we build a nuclear weapon?" Wiesner consistently answered "no" to the latter, which he believed marked him as a liberal in Ben-Gurion's eyes and limited his access.[^1]

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 8.