In the pantheon of modern Jewish leaders, Chaim Weizmann is a giant. One of the founding fathers of the state of Israel and its first president, he was also a president of the World Zionist Organization and a chemist of the first rank, for whom Israel's renowned Weizmann Institute of Science was named. Yet there has never been a scholarly biography of Weizmann. His own autobiography, Trial and Error, written largely from memory, is riddled with errors. Here at last is a book by an authority on the history of Zionism that fills the gaps in our knowledge. A biography of Weizmann is in many ways a history of the Jewish people in the modern period. This book delves into the factors that shaped Weizmann's personality and world view. It analyzes his relations with his family and other men and women, among them the major Jewish personalities of his day. In the process it deals with the tensions between Zionists and anti-Zionists, the impact of Zionism on the Eastern and Western Jewish communities, and the role of British, French, and German governments during various phases of the movement to establish a Jewish homeland. The book also pays much attention to Weizmann's scientific work. This volume ends with Weizmann at the age of 40 on the eve of World War I, when he was thrust into the center stage of world politics as a major negotiator for the Balfour Declaration. A subsequent volume will cover the remainder of his life. About the Author: Jehuda Reinharz is Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History and Director of the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry at Brandies University. He is author of Fatherland or Promised Land: The Dilemma of the German Jew, 1893-1914 and the editor of The Letters and Papers of Chaim Weizmann, 1918-1920.

Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Zionist Leader

Reinharz, Jehuda

Biographies & Memoirs

Oxford University Press

In the pantheon of modern Jewish leaders, Chaim Weizmann is a giant. One of the founding fathers of the State of Israel and its first president, he was also a president of the World Zionist Organization, and an eminent chemist, for whom Israel's renowned Weizmann Institute of Science was named. Yet, until now, there has never been an authoritative biography of Weizmann that removed the layers of myth obscuring our image of the man. Both a personal portrait of a fascinating man and a far-reaching history of the Jews in the modern world, this book, written by one of America's leading authorities on Jewish history, delves into the factors that shaped Weizmann's personality and worldview. Though the book focuses on the making of Weizmann as a Zionist leader, it also lays the foundations for understanding his extraordinary achievements as a scientist. This volume, the first of two that will cover his entire career, ends when, at the age of 40, Weizmann is thrust onto the center stage of world politics as a major negotiator for the Balfour Declaration.

Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Zionist LeaderVolume 1 (Studies in Jewish History)

Historical

The first volume of Jehuda Reinharz's definitive biography of Chaim Weizmann, Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Zionist Leader, met with widespread acclaim and won five major prizes. President Chaim Herzog of Israel praised it for being "rich in fascinating detail, and never losing sight of the great issues involved." Howard Sachar, writing in The Washington Post Book World, called it "magisterial." And John Gross of The New York Times hailed it as an "admirable new life of Weizmann--easily the most authoritative so far." Now, in Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Statesman, Reinharz provides the long-awaited second volume. This massively researched, deftly written narrative follows Weizmann's life from the beginning of the First World War through some of his greatest triumphs--the Balfour Declaration, the founding of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the British Mandate for Palestine. Like the first volume, The Making of a Statesman combines intimate detail with incisive analysis. Reinharz untangles the internal politics of the World Zionist Organization as he charts Weizmann's rise to prominence. We see Weizmann struggling with fellow Zionists over his pro-British policies and his increasingly authoritarian leadership. We see him as a persuader and diplomat, a charming figure who could win influence in elite British circles without downplaying his Jewish identity or heritage. Reinharz offers fresh insights into Weizmann's brilliance as a chemist. No other historian has ever explained Weizmann's scientific accomplishments and their ties to his Zionist diplomacy. Reinharz follows the difficult negotiations that produced the triumphant Balfour Declaration. He carries the story through Weizmann's work in Palestine to found a vibrant Jewish community. Weizmann's largely unsuccessful efforts to open a friendly dialogue with the Arabs are also fully explored. Chaim Weizmann was a towering figure of twentieth-century Zionism and the first president of the State of Israel. In every way, this monumental biography is worthy of this great statesman.

Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a StatesmanVolume 2 (Studies in Jewish History)

Religion & Spirituality

Judaism

Israel is a modern state whose institutions were clearly shaped by an ideological movement. The declaration of independence in 1948 was an immediate expression of the fundamental Zionist idea: it gave effect to a plan advocated by organized Zionists since the 1880s for solving the Jewish Problem. Thus, major Israeli political institutions, such as the party structure, embody principles and practices that were followed in the World Zionist Organization. In this respect, Israel is similar to other new states whose political institutions directly derive from the nationalist movements that won their independence. History and social structure are inseparably joined; the contemporary social problems of the new state are clearly rooted in its history, while the shape of its future is being decided by the very policies through which it is trying to solve these problems. At the same time, there are many unique aspects to the birth of Israel. The problem to be solved by acquiring sovereignty in Israel (and establishing a free Jewish society there) was the problem of a people living in exile. The first stage, therefore, was to return to the people a homeland to which they were intimately attached, not only in their dreams but in the minute details of their ways of life. This important book studies the birth of the State of Israel and analyzes the elaborately articulated and variegated ideological principles of the Zionist movement that led to that birth. It examines conflicting pre-state ideals and the social structure that emerged in Palestine's Jewish community during the Mandate period. In particular, Zionism and the Creation of a New Society reflects upon Israel's existence as both a state and a social structure--a place conceived before its birth as a means of solving a particular social malady: the modern Jewish Problem. Jehuda Reinharz and the late Ben Halpern carefully trace the development of the Zionist idea from its earliest expressions up to the eve of World War II, setting their study against a broad background of political and social development throughout Europe and the Middle East.

Zionism and the Creation of a New Society (Studies in Jewish History)

History

Halpern, the late Ben

Middle East

The last two centuries have witnessed a radical transformation of Jewish life. Marked by such profound events as the emancipation from the ghettoes of Europe, the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel, Judaism's long journey through the modern age has been a complex and tumultuous one, leading many Jews to ask themselves not only where they have been and where they are going, but what it means to be a Jew in today's world. Tracing the dramatic changes in Jewish religion, culture, and identity from the seventeenth century to 1948, The Jew in the Modern World, Third Edition, remains the most complete sourcebook on modern Jewish history available. Now thoroughly expanded and updated, this critically acclaimed volume of primary materials features previously unpublished and inaccessible sources concerning the Jewish experience in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa; women in Jewish history; American Jewish life; the Holocaust; and Zionism and the nascent Jewish community in Palestine on the eve of the establishment of the State of Israel. The documents are arranged chronologically in each chapter and are meticulously and extensively annotated and cross-referenced. Providing useful tables detailing Jewish demographic trends, this unique text is ideal for courses in modern Jewish history, Zionism and Israel, the Holocaust, or modern European history.

The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History

Mendes-Flohr, Paul

World

Essential Papers on Zionism

Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

Seventeen scholars explore the interaction between a Jewish culture with its ancient heritage and an expansive German culture in the process of modernization.

The Jewish Response to German Culture: From the Enlightenment to the Second World War

Europe

Brandeis University Press

Living with Antisemitism: Modern Jewish Responses (Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry Series)

A collection of 22 essays by distinguished scholars on the Jewish response to antisemitism worldwide over the past 200 years.

Living with Antisemitism: Modern Jewish Responses (TAUBER INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF EUROPEAN JEWRY SERIES)