Chaim Weizmann I. He founded the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel and was instrumental in the establishment of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Weizmann was born in the village of Motal, located in what is now Belarus and at that time part of the Russian Empire. He was the third of 15 children born to Oizer and Rachel Czemerinsky Weizmann. His father was a timber merchant. From ages four to eleven, he attended a traditional cheder, or Jewish religious elementary school, and he began studying Hebrew as a child. At the age of 11, he entered high school Pinsk, where
Chaim Weizmann he displayed a talent for science, especially chemistry. While in Pinsk, he also became active in the Hovevei Zion groups there. He graduated with honors in 1892, and decided to pursue chemistry as a profession. In 1892, Weizmann left for Germany to study chemistry. He began his studies at the Polytechnic Institute of Darmstadt. To earn a living while studying, he worked as a Hebrew teacher at an Orthodox Jewish boarding school. In 1894, he moved to Berlin to study at the Technische Hochschule Berlin. While in Berlin, he joined a circle of Zionist intellectuals. In 1897, he moved to