President of Israel who is most likely to command a majority in the Knesset. The president awards the Israel Prize on Yom Ha'atzmaut and the Wolf Prize. The president also serves as the main speaker at the opening ceremonies of the half-yearly Knesset conference, as well as at the annual official ceremonies for Yom Hazikaron and Yom HaShoah. Most Israeli presidents were involved in national politics or Zionist activities before taking office. Some were also distinguished in other fields: for example, Chaim Weizmann was a leading research chemist who founded the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot; Zalman Shazar was an author, poet,
Chaim Weizmann with a chemist who arranged for a quantity of poison to be procured. According to the story, Kovner did not tell Weizmann of his intention to poison millions of Germans via their water supply, but only of the backup plan to poison SS members who were in allied POW camps. The lesser plan was put into operation in April 1946 at Stalag 13. Kovner's story was repeated in 1998 by another Nakam leader Yulik Harmatz. There is no independent evidence for the meeting and some historians doubt it. Kovner's biographer Dina Porat wrote that Weizmann was not in Palestine on