Dr. Weizmann's Life

Young Zionist Sees Merger
Of Hebraic East, Modern West

he Parents of the President of Israel

(Continued from Page 1)
that Palestine, though not capa-
The soldier pushes him roughly ble of taking in all the Jews of
against the wall.
the world, nor of settling their
"Keep your hands up, Jew," he economic problems, would serve
says, and grinning, he puts his as a center of cultural influence
_ own hand deep in the boy's pock- for a people who had given so
ets, front and back. He pulls but much of- law and ethics to all
,a few coins, a handkerchief, a other peoples.
small English grammar and a
Weizmann was fired by this
key-ring, Eie throws them to the concept. But he brought to it
floor. •
something in addition. This was
The lieutenant glpnces about the formula of practical work.
•the room.
A cultural center in Palestine
"You can go back to your food," was not enough, he argued. The
'he says, and leads his men away. Jews themselves must build the
*
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land physically, acre by acre,
, Chaim Weizmann, to whom dig- tree by tree. It was the concept
- nity and freedom were sacred, of the Jewish pioneer. It reflected
never forgot that night, its shame the scientist and idealist in that
• and humiliation—at that intimate - Weizmann ,the synthesis of Jew-
moment, in the warmth and kin- ish traditions and modern thought,
ship of the reassembled family. bringing together, as if to create
The arrogant entrance of the sol- some new cheinical compound,.
diers, the family lined up against the Hebraic spirit (Attie East and
the wall like criminals, a grin- the modernism of the West.
ning Russian soldier searching
At 18, when time came for col-
the pockets.
The persecution, the lack of re- lege, Weizmann turned to Ger-
spect for the privacy of one's many, then renowned for its sci-
home, were not new to him nor to entific institutions. Russian uni-
his people, but it was one more versities were virtually closed to
symbol of the miserable status of Jewish students. He matriculated
the Jews, and one more reason at the Polytechnic Institute of
.0ZER WEIZMANN
MRS. LEAH RACHEL WEIZMANN
to support 'their overwhelming Darmstadt, then attended the
Father of the First President of. Israel, in 1895,
Dr.
Weizmann's
technical
school
in
Charlotten-
Mother
at Haifa in 1936.
yearning for a land of their own.
at Motele, Near Pinsk.
Indeed, the• disqualifications burg-Berlin, and later received
against the Jew•S may have played his degree of doctor of chemistry
a part in helping shape his career. at the University of Freiburg, Major Reuven Dafni
There were two kinds of high -Switzerland.
schools in Russia then. One was . In Freiburg he met, for the first Appointed to U. S. Post
the gymnasium, which prepared time, a man with a huge black
By BORIS SMOLAR
"NEW YORK, (JTA) — Major
Students for an academic, liberal spade beard and burning eyes,
(Copyright• 1948, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
Reuven
Dafni
of
the
Defense
who spoke as though he were con-
arts course.
Army of Israel, Vacation Notes
The other was the realschule, sumed by an inner fire. His name
'
who is now in
preparing for technical and busi- was Theodor Herzl.
The vacation season is on, and we assume that the reader is about
t h e United
This was a meeting of two men
ness careers. -
States, has been to take his well-earned summer rest and to spend it with a good
whose names were to be immortal
Richly Active Student Years
in hand . . . The best book of the season is, of course, Winston
appointed repre- book
At 17, young Weizmann moved in modern Jewish history—the
Churchill's "The Gathering Storm," published by Houghton Mifflin.
,4,3entative of the
to Pinsk; to attend the Pinsk real- One e who conceived the Jewish
. .. Jewish readers will be greatly disappointed with the fact that
. Defense M i nis-
schule. He helped support him- State, the other who was to be its
while evaluating every possible subject that led to the outbreak of
first
President.
Both
had
reached
4-y of the state the war, Churchill has nothing to say about the role which Nazi
self by tutoring in Russian. A
pf Israel in the anti-Jewish propaganda played in paving the way for Hitler's war
born scholar, he had already the same conclusion by different
Israeli Office of preparations.... To be sure, he mentions casually Hitler's arguments
shown a mathematical bent, but paths and from different direc-
[ ri f ormation in against the Jews, but does not bother to ridicule them, nor to explain
undoubtedly the technical school tions.
Herzl was a playwright- and
gew York: The their meaning as a weapon against the democratic world ... N6r does
—by its emphasis upon the sci-
in any way mention the anti-Jewish persecutions started by the
R. Dafni i p pointment of he
ences in its curriculum—encour- journalist of Hungarian-Jewish
Nazis years before the outbreak of the war and followed up later
_aged him in the direction of phys- descent; he was a continental who Major, Dafni was made by David With the mass-slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews. . . . One wonders why
lived in the free-artistic spirit of Ben Gurion, prime minister and Churchill has chosen to ignore the "Jewish angle" of a period which
ics and chemistry.
These were his formative years Vienna, and had never been par- defense minister of Israel.
he has recorded so masterfully . . . Similarly no mention of Palestine
and they were rich with Zionist ticularly conscious of his Jewish
A veteran of 15 years with can be found -in his volume, nor of the role V which the Jews of
background.
Palestine played when they joined the. British armed f6rces imme-
'activity .
Weizmann, on the other hand, Haganah, Major Dafni partici- diately after the outbreak of the war.
All Russia then was full of rev-
pated in the security plarining of
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olutionary ardor. The Czar, an was fresh from the heart of per- the Jewish republic. D u r i n g
-absolute monarch, ruled like a secuted Russian Jewry, steeped in World War II he served in the Inside Palestine
_ god over a Russia which included the history of his people and British army as • an intelligence
Another book that would make fascinating reading during
-part of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, proudly conscious of his heritage. officer and was decorated for vacation
is "Palestine, Land of Israel," just published by Ziff-Davis
Yet both had come to Zion.
- Finland and Bessarabia. There
leading a hazardons mission in Co. . . . It is a volume containing 150 excellent photographs of every
(Copyright 1948, New York Journal
-were 'strong movements afoot to American.
All rights reserved. Dis- German-held yugoslavia. Major aspect of life in Israel taken by noted photographer Herbert S.
overthrow him and set ,up free, tributed by King Features Syndicate.)
Sonnenfeld . . . And the text is written by Pierre Van Paassen, who
(tireneva, city of Intellectual Dafni and his intelligence unit needs no introduction either as a writer or as a fighter for the estab-
independent regimes for these
were credited during the war lishment of the Jewish state. . . . To those who have never visited
ferment;
Weizmann,
lebturer
in
- people and for Russia proper.
SOme political parties wanted a chemistry, marries a beautiful with saving 142 Allied airmen, Palestine, the collection of photos in the book gives a concrete picture
of life there today ... Van Paassen's review of how Israel was trans-
constitutional monarchy based on young woman in one of his class- most of them Americans.
formed froria a desert into a country of rich fertility is just what is
the British pattern. Others wanted es; he moves to England; the his-
needed to satisfy a reader who wants to have basic information on
a Marxist revolution, and still oth- toric meeting with Lord Balfour 2 Jewish Schools in Hungary
the Jewish state . . . With Israel now the focus of international atten-
.
•
.
see
next
week's
installment
ers called for - agrarian reforms
Exempted from Nationalization . tion, the publication of .a book which speaks both to the mind and
looking to the division of the great of the life of Dr. Weizmann, war-
to the eye is a very timely undertaking. . . . The photos convey the
BUDAPEST, (JTA)—Two high spirit of. Jewish life in the cities as well as in the colonies. . :. They
rior with a dream.)
feudal estates of Russia. •
* * *
schools maintained here by the show Jewish work in the fields and in the factories . . . They give a
Young Weizmann's interests
More than 12,300 European Jewish community have been ex- concrete•idea of what Jews in Israel do today for the benefit of adults
were not in these. He was living Jewish refugees were resettled empted from the country-wide and children . They are a graphic testimony to Jewish efforts in
making their land a model country for the entire Middle East. . . .
the dream of Jewish independ- in Israel, the United States and
They will impress non-Jewish readers in the United States no less
ence. He wanted to meet, head other havens in all parts of the nationalization program. The fate than- Jewish readers.
*
*
on, and solve the recurrent waves world in the V first half of 1948 of seven other Jewish academic
of anti-Semitism, the unhealthy under the auspices of the Joint and vocational schools is still
And now — for my own. vacation . . Will be here again three
economic life of a people re- Distribution Committee.
pending.
weeks from noW. . . .
stricted to crafts, trade and com-
(rd.,. by NORMAN:and SOL NOOtta.;
merce, the rootlessness and inse-
i-"us by RHODA B. SIMON-j
LIVES OF OUR TIMES,
ELIAHLI EPSTEIN
curity of their existence.
To those who advised him to
1NTIRODIJCING ELIAHU EPSTEIN,
AT 21,HE LEFT•SOVIET RUSSIA. FOR TWO
-forget the Jewish problem and
AUTHOR,SCHOLAR,EXPERTON ORIENT-
YEARS HE WORKED IN THE FIELDS OF
:turn to revolution—to those who
AL AFFAIRS AND ISRAEL'S FIRST
PALESTINE, CONTINUING TO STUDY AT
argued that with the revolution
MINISTER TO THE U.S. 4'
THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY.
all peoples would be free and
among them the Jews as well-
Weizmann shook his head.
/'
'The Jews will achieve free-
1:0
dom only by their own efforts,
not through the efforts of others
—and only on their own land,"
/
„•
"N-4,„40,
he said.
MOVING TO TRANS,JORDAN,I4E LIVED AMONGST THE
BORN 1904 IN THE UKRAINE,HE RECEIV-
BEDOUIN TRIBES,STUDYING THEIR LANGUAGE AND
Shows Qualities as Leader
ED A FORMAL JEWISH EDUCATION.
CUSTOMS. IN 1930, HE RECEIVED A ROCKEFELLER
He soon became known in
UNIVERSITY OF KIEV, HE
STUDYING
AT
FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP TO THE AMERICAN
Pinsk as a brilliant, persuasive
LONGED FOR P ALESTINE.
UNIVERSITY, BEIRUT, LEBANON,
debater, who spoke quietly rather
than emotionally, • and as a youth
ON MAY 16,1948,UPON APPOINTMENT AS ISRAEL'S FIRST
of extraordinary personal charm.
AS DIRECTOR OF THE JEWISH` AGENCY WASH.
AN AUTHORITY ON ARAB " AFFAIRS
MINISTER TOM U.S. HE PROCLAIMED TO THE WORLD
HE JOINED THE STAFF OF THE
INGTON OFFICE,HE WORKED TIRELESSLY. IN
He was already evidencing that
111
1111111S
1111111111111111111111111
THE PURPOSE OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL- IS TO BE-
PALESTINE JEWISH AGENCY
WASHINGTON AND LAKE SUCCESS TO OBTAIN
.
quality of character and incisive-
U.K.. APPROVAL OF A .TEWISH STATE.
COME A DEMOCRATiC, PEACE-LOVING.LAW- ABIDING
IN Int HIS FLUENT KNOW-
ness" which was to enable him to
44
MEMBER OF THE FAMILY- OF NATIONS."
LEDGE OF FRENCH,RUSSIAN,ENG•
plead his cause so effectively with
LISH,HIEBREW &ARABIC WAS IN •
the statesmen of the world.
VALuARLE,
He became a disciple of Ahad
Haam, one of the great Jewish
philosophers of the day. Ahad
Haam maintained that the most
"•1,
t— C".
significant aspect of the Jewish
upbuilding of Palestine must be
". '4 4 nr.Ev.--e
IN 1945, HE SERVED AS OBSERVER
the revival • of Jewish culture;
FOR THE JEWISH AGENCY Ar`TFIE
FRISCO CONFERENCE,WHERE THE
UNITES NATIONS WAS FOUNDED.
lisp. moist 4q, sr Apwsa
I6—THE JEWISH NEWS
Friday, July 16, 1948

Between You and Me

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