Vera Weizmann Vera Weizmann Vera Weizmann (; November 27, 1881 – September 24, 1966), wife of Chaim Weizmann, the first president of the State of Israel, was a medical doctor and a Zionist activist. Vera Chatzman was born in the town of Rostov, in the Russian Empire, the daughter of Isaiah and Feodosia Chatzman. She initially studied music before taking up medical training in Geneva, Switzerland. There she met Chaim Weizmann at the University's Zionist Club. In 1906 she married Weizmann at Zoppot, Prussia, today called Sopot, in Poland, and later that year they settled in Manchester, England. There they had two
Chaim Weizmann during World War I, Weizmann was director of the British Admiralty laboratories from 1916 until 1919. In April 1918 at the head of the Jewish Commission, he returned to Palestine to look for "rare minerals" for the British war effort in the Dead Sea. Weizmann's attraction for British Liberalism enabled Lloyd George's influence at the Ministry of Munitions to do a financial and industrial deal with Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) to seal the future of the Zionist homeland. Tirelessly energetic Weizmann entered London again in later October to speak for a solid hour with the Prime Minister, propped by "The