where it all began – Chaim Weizmann’s journey from Belarus to a Jewish State

Written and Researched by Amit Behar

Click on images in the article for full clarity 

Chaim Weizmann was the first president of Israel as well as a leading scientist with a doctorate in Organic Chemistry. He was elected president in 1949 and held the role until his death in 1952. But part of his lesser-known history involves his early life growing up in Motal. 

In the very tiny town of Motal, on the 27th of November 1874, Chaim was born into an Orthodox Jewish family, with parents Ozier and Rachel Weizmann. At the time, Motal (sometimes also spelt Motol) was under the rule of the Russian Empire. Motal was a part of Poland from 1921 until 1939, when it then fell under the rule of the USSR, but more specifically the BSSR (Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic). Modern Belarus was formed only recently, in 1991, which was when Motal became a part of the Brest region of Belarus.

Chaim’s parents had a total of 15 children, with 11 of them making it through to adulthood.

 

Chaim was the third oldest sibling. Luckily, their house in Belarus included seven bedrooms, so we can imagine that the children had room to grow and learn (even if some had to share). The outside of the house in which Chaim Weizmann was born and raised can be seen in the following pictures:

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                             Although Chaim had many siblings, he experienced plenty of personal attention and encouragement, even living like an only child at his grandfather’s house. His grandfather, Michael Chereminsky (father to Rachel Weizmann), lived right next door to the family. There was a slowly growing Jewish community in Motal, reaching about 404 Jews out of 2,194 people who lived there in 1885. Motal even had a Rabbi, a synagogue, two Jewish schools and Jewish shops. (source: Shtetl Routes – Motal – Cultural Heritage Card).

Chaim started school in Pinsk at the age of 11 and graduated with distinction at the age of 18.

 

He became well-travelled and was very successful in academia as he moved between Germany, Switzerland and England. In 1892 he studied Chemistry at Technische Universität (Technical University) in Darmstadt, Germany. In Chaim’s autobiography ‘Trial And Error’, he recounts that:

“one of the teachers asked me what nationality I was; and when I answered, “Ein Russischer Jude” (a Russian Jew), he stared at me, then went off into gales of laughter. He had never heard of such a thing. A German, yes. A Russian, yes. Judaism, yes. But a Russian Jew! That was to him the height of the ridiculous.”

He continued to express how the little contacts he made in Berlin made him feel “ill at ease”:

“Moreover, I was lonely and desperately homesick for Pinsk, for my family, for Motol, for my friends, for the world I knew. […] It was better in Pinsk, though Pinsk was Russia, and Russia meant czardom and the Pale and the numerus clausus and pogroms, In Russia at least we, the Jews, had a culture of our own, and a high one. We had standing in our own eyes. We did not dream that our Jewish being was something to be sloughed off furtively.” 

After two years he returned to Pinsk to help his family with their financial difficulties. He claimed “The situation at home was bad. The family had moved to Pinsk, for a number of reasons.” Along with financial strain, some of these reasons included: supporting the studies of his younger siblings who studied in Pinsk, as well as the benefits of this move for his father’s business. It is clear that Chaim held fond memories of his house in Motal and expressed frustration in having to leave: “our only reason for staying in Motol had been the house. […] the first period of resettlement was a hard one”.

In 1896, he returned to Germany to continue his studies, this time in Berlin at the Königlich Technische Hochschule (Royal Technical University). Unlike the university in Darmstadt, Chaim considered the one in Berlin to be “one of the three best scientific schools in Europe” as it had a large proportion of Russian-Jewish students and included the “center of the intellectual currents of the time”. He received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, where he studied and lectured. In 1904 he became a lecturer at the University of Manchester in England.

Chaim met his future wife Vera Chatzman in Switzerland, 1901. At the age of 18, Vera went to Geneva, Switzerland to study Medicine. Chaim mentioned that he and Vera were slow in forming a relationship, “partly because of our seven-year difference in our ages and positions, as I was a lecturer and she was a student, but primarily because of differences in our background and approach to life.” (source: Yad Chaim Weizman – Timeline 1906). Vera was the younger of the two, born on the 27th of November 1881, in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. She met Chaim when she was 20 years old and he was 27. They were married five years later in 1906 and had two children together, Benyamin Weizmann (born 1907) and Michael Oser Weizmann (born 1916).

 

Vera and Chaim became well renowned in the scientific community. Vera managed 7 clinics and became one of the first women who worked in the medicine sector within Manchester. During the Second World War, Vera worked as a doctor in London with the Red Cross. In 1915, Chaim invented a much more sustainable way to make acetone, which majorly helped Britain during WW1 as it was used to mass produce explosive powder. He also helped to set up a phosphate plant at the Dead Sea and a Hydroelectric power plant in Naharayim. 

After the Weizmann family left their house in Belarus, the house swapped between plenty of other owners, later even housing Soviet institutions in the Second World War. After the war, the house became an administration office for an orphanage, but once the orphanage was relocated to another district, the Director of the orphanage bought the house for his own personal use. Interestingly, in the 1970s the Weizmann’s home was moved from its original location. It originally sat in the town’s main street and was moved closer to the lake on the outskirts of Motal. The site where the house first stood is now a café.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Despite the house being relocated, some of the original features are still intact, such as the authentic floor, interior doors, windows, a few of the walls and an old lock with a key. In fact, with a keen eye you can spot a small dent in the wooden structure where a Mezuzah has left its mark.

Although the house does not hold an official museum status, the house can be visited and hosts a few permanent exhibits. Some of these exhibits include: photographs of the family, Jewish furniture and gifts. They house items of high historical value, such as: a unique autobiography published in the 1940s, Israeli newspaper issues, essays about his activities in the highest state position, an American poster dedicated to him, as well as commemorative and anniversary coins made in his honour. To learn more about the house and what they offer click here.

So what was the extent of Chaim Weizmann’s impact on the Zionism Movement?

Whilst people’s understanding of Zionism varies a lot today, at its core, being a Zionist means believing in and supporting a Jewish state where Jews can live safely. Chaim expressed that his idea of Zionism involved accepting responsibility for Jews wherever they are. He wished to build a land where Jews could live safely, escape their endless persecution and return to their historic land. Chaim learnt about Zionism from reading the political writings of Theodor Herzl, who founded the World Zionist Organization in 1897, and became widely known as the father of Zionism. 

In 1906 Chaim met Arthur James Balfour (a former UK prime minister) who discussed with him the proposed UK plan that Jews should settle in Uganda. Chaim was strongly against this idea, and recounted their conversation:

He asked me, “Why are the Jews opposed to the Uganda Plan?” I answered him, “Lord Balfour, suppose that I would offer to you Paris instead of London, would you accept?” “But,” he responded, “Dr. Weizmann, London is ours.” “That’s true,” I responded, “but Jerusalem was ours when London was still a swamp.” 

(source: Yad Chaim Weizman – Timeline 1906).

In 1907, the same year that Chaim’s first son was born, he visited Palestine for the first time (during the Second Aliyah). This made him want to return to Europe and increase pressure “for urgent, practical work in Palestine” (source: Yad Chaim Weizman – Timeline 1907).

Chaim advocated for growing peace with Israel’s neighbours and focused on building a solid economy with high moral standards. He supported the solution of partitioning Palestine (today Israel) into two states, one Arab and one Jewish. He believed in maintaining peaceful relations with the land’s diverse religious population. He stated “We do not build our national home at the expense of another nation. We wish to build Palestine with you, together.” (source: Weizmann Wonder Wander  – Dr. Chaim Weizmann).

On the 2nd of November 1917, Balfour had sent the Balfour Declaration, which showed the British Government’s support “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” (source: Yad Chaim Weizman – Timeline 1917). In 1921, Chaim Weizmann was elected the President of the World Zionist Organization.

In 1918, he was appointed head of a British delegation: the Zionist Commission for Palestine. This placed him at the forefront of discussions about Jewish settlement and allowed him to provide his personal recommendations. During his lifetime, Chaim launched a public campaign to show Jewish hardship making a lasting impact on the Jewish population. He eventually had over 30 years of involvement in supporting the Zionist movement.

In the image below we can see the Keren Hayesod group in 1937, gathering outside the house in which Chaim was born. Keren Hayesod is an organisation, established in 1920, which raises funds to support Israel and they are still active today. Despite this photo having been taken at a time of great uncertainty and fear during the Second World War, there is a clear sense of a strong Jewish community and support in raising efforts to achieve a safe space to inhabit.

Today, there is a modern road sign which welcomes visitors into Motal. On the lower right side of the sign, the Hebrew word for Motol (מוטול) is visible. This acts as a constant reminder of the town’s Jewish history. 

 

Chaim had met with many political and scientific leaders in his time, most notably he met with Harry Truman at The White House and Albert Einstein. Interestingly, Truman was the first official leader to acknowledge the state of Israel. Whereas Einstein travelled America with Chaim Weizmann to collect funds for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem which opened in 1925.

Chaim founded the Daniel Sieff Research Institute in 1934, in Rehovot, Palestine. In 1949, at the age of 75, the Institute was renamed in his honour as The Weizmann Institute of Science. This world-leading research institution has made fascinating impacts on scientific and technological advancements. For example, an incredible historic milestone involves one of the first computers in the world, the WEIZAC, being designed and built at the Institute in 1954. During his life, Chaim expressed a strong desire for the young generations to focus their efforts on the continued development of technology and science.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Unlike many impactful leaders across history, Chaim Weizmann lived to see much of his efforts produce tangible results. He saw his support and funds be put towards the education of future generations. Additionally, he saw a huge wave of immigrants come to Israel when it was established in 1948, as well as the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) formed.

Chaim Weizmann’s final home was located approximately a kilometre away from The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. It was built in 1936 (just two years after the Institute was originally founded) and has been open to the public since 1978.

In February 2025, I was fortunate enough to visit Chaim Weizmann’s home in Rehovot. There you can truly see the accumulation and impact of his life’s work. Additionally, you can watch an informative video about his life and achievements, as well as take a wonderful audio-guided tour of the house and surrounding land.

Compared to the Weizmann’s home in Motal, this home was built specifically to be their private home. The house reflects Chaim’s and Vera’s successful careers, impact and affluence. The home includes: an outdoor pool; separate bedrooms for each parent and child; a library; spacious rooms for hosting, dining, reading; and even a grand piano.

Outside of the home sits a Ford Lincoln Cosmopolitan car, which was gifted to Weizmann by Henry Ford II in 1950. In the right image, you can see the back of the car includes the official emblem of Israel: a symbol of a Menorah with olive branches on either side, as well as ‘Israel’ written below in Hebrew.

 

 

Inside the house I found a copy of the same family photo that is preserved inside Chaim’s home in Motal.

 

 

 

This family photo above (centre and right), was taken in Pinsk, 1904. Here we see Chaim at age 30 standing third from the right. We see his parents, Rachel and Ozer, sitting in the centre of the group. Each member in the photograph is as follows:

Standing (from right to left):

Samuel Weizmann, Gita Weizmann, Chaim Weizmann, Fruma Weizmann, Feiwel Weizmann, Zinaida Weizmann-Rivlin, Moshe Weizmann, Anna Weizmann, Masha Weizmann.

Sitting (right to left):

Chaim Lubzinsky, Miriam-Maria Weizmann-Lubzinsky, Yechiel-Mikal, Ozer Weizmann, Rachel Leah Weizmann, Minna, Abraham Lichtenstein, Haya Weizmann-Lichtenstein.

Below is the bedroom of Chaim Weizmann, as well as the grave in which he and his wife were buried.

 

 

Chaim Weizmann died peacefully in his bed at the age of 77 in 1952. Vera died in 1966 at the age of 84. As Chaim had requested, the site of their burial is in the garden, just behind the house. Weizmann wanted the grave to remain simple: “I was always a simple Jew from Motol, and that’s how I want to remain after my death” (source: Yad Chaim Weizmann – Weizmann House, The Grave Site). Today his grave is visited every year by thousands and the Weizmann Institute of Science holds a yearly memorial service and lectures.

If you would like to learn more, plan a visit, or access a virtual tour of Chaim’s home in Israel, click here.

Finally, I would like to thank Yad Chaim Weizmann for providing The Together Plan with so many wonderful photographs and information for use in this article.