Minna Weizmann Minna Weizmann Minna Weizmann (1889–?) was a Russian Jewish doctor who served in Syria and Palestine during World War I. Weizmann also served as a spy for Germany. Weizmann was born in present-day Motal, Belarus (then part of the Russian Empire) to a prominent family. Her parents were Oizer and Rachel Czermerinsky Weizmann. Weizmann's most famous sibling was Chaim Weizmann, the President of Zionist Organization and the first President of Israel. Weizmann attended medical school in Berlin. She was a socialist who hated the czarist government. In 1913, she immigrated to Palestine, where she became one of the few female
The Racah Institute of Physics before the opening of the Hebrew University, first steps towards physics research in Jerusalem were taken by Chaim Weizmann. Weizmann, the President of the Zionist Organisation, and the major figure in the planning and founding of the Hebrew University contacted Leonard Ornstein, the known physicist from Utrecht, the Netherlands, to prepare plans for physics research at the upcoming university. After the University was officially opened, he became the chairman of the physics group for several years, acting from his seat at Utrecht. In the year 1923, two years before its official opening, Albert Einstein gave a talk on Mount Scopus,