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
Chaim Weizmann fermentation. He used the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum (the "Weizmann organism") to produce acetone. Acetone was used in the manufacture of cordite explosive propellants critical to the Allied war effort (see Royal Navy Cordite Factory, Holton Heath). Weizmann transferred the rights to the manufacture of acetone to the Commercial Solvents Corporation in exchange for royalties. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill became aware of the possible use of Weizmann's discovery in early 1915, and Minister of Munitions David Lloyd George joined Churchill in encouraging Weizmann's development of the process. Pilot plant development of laboratory procedures was completed in 1915 at