Chaim Gross historian Lewis Jacobs made a 30-minute feature of Gross carving, called "Tree Trunk to Head", showing Gross at work in his East Village studio on a portrait of his wife Renee, who models in the film. In 1949 Gross sketched Chaim Weizmann, President of Israel, at several functions in New York City where Weizmann was speaking. Gross began a portrait in clay and then traveled to Israel in the summer of that year hoping to be able to meet Weizmann and have him sit for a portrait. Weizmann was too ill, but Gross completed the bust in bronze later that
Chaim Weizmann was breaking off the relationship with Getzowa until 1903. His behavior was seen as dishonorable, creating fractures with others in the Zionist movement. His fellow students held a mock-court proceeding and ruled that Weizmann, should uphold his commitment and marry Getzowa, even if he later divorced her. Weizmann ignored their advice. In 1904, he moved to the United Kingdom after receiving a job offer from the Chemistry Department of the University of Manchester. He was appointed senior lecturer. In 1910, he became a British citizen, and held his British nationality until 1948, when he renounced it to assume his position