Chaim Weizmann Yechiel, a leading Israeli agronomist, became commander of the Israeli Air Force and also served as President of Israel. Chaim Weizmann is buried beside his wife in the garden of his home at the Weizmann estate, which is located on the grounds of Israel's science research institute named after him. Weizmann was absent from the first Zionist conference, held in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland, because of travel problems, but he attended each one thereafter. Beginning in 1901, he lobbied for the founding of a Jewish institution of higher learning in Palestine. Together with Martin Buber and , he presented a
World Union of Jewish Students highlighting the plight of German Jewry, the opening session was presided over by the renowned British philosopher Samuel Alexander who finished his opening statement with the line "I have become a Zionist", which was met with wild applause. It was decided at the congress that Einstein would remain President alongside a group of Vice-Presidents that would include Chaim Bialik, Sigmund Freud and Chaim Weizmann. Maurice Perlzweig, a young, British Liberal rabbi, was elected chairperson at the 1933 Congress. By 1936, Perlzweig was also a leader of both the Zionist Organization and the World Jewish Congress, which he had helped to