Maria Weizmann an evidence of its importance to the Soviet regime. After Joseph Stalin's death and the admission by the Soviet leadership that the "plot" was made up, she was still kept in Lubyanka prison, and released only on August 12, 1953. Weizmann immigrated to Israel in 1956. She was officially rehabilitated after Perestroika in 1989. Maria Weizmann Maria Weizmann (; born 1893) was a sister of Israeli politician and scientist Chaim Weizmann (the first President of the State of Israel). She graduated from a university in Switzerland and worked as a doctor in Moscow from 1915. Maria Weizman and her husband
President of Israel and journalist; and Chaim Herzog was a military leader, attorney, and diplomat. The first Israeli presidents were born in the former Russian Empire, which was true of much of the leadership in the early days of the state. The first native-born president, as well as the first with a Sephardi background, was Yitzhak Navon. The first president with a Western European background was Chaim Herzog, who originally came from Belfast, United Kingdom. The first president with a Mizrahi background was Moshe Katsav, who was born in Iran. All Israeli presidents from Yitzhak Ben-Zvi to Ezer Weizman were members of, or