thumb|150px|Vera Weizmann,

Vera Weizmann (née Chatzman) (; 27 November 1881 – 24 September 1966), wife of Chaim Weizmann, the first president of the State of Israel, was a medical doctor and a Zionist activist.

Biography

alt=Casual group shot of four men and two women standing on a brick pavement.|thumb|[[Albert Einstein and his wife Elsa Einstein (centre) with Zionist leaders, including Chaim Weizmann and Vera Weizmann, Menahem Ussishkin, and Ben-Zion Mossinson, on arrival in New York City in 1921]]

thumb|200px|Vera and [[Chaim Weizmann, Herbert Samuel, David Lloyd George, Ethel Snowden, and Philip Snowden]]

Vera Chatzman was born in the town of Rostov-on-Don, in the Russian Empire, the daughter of Isaiah and Feodosia Chatzman. She initially studied music before taking up medical training in Geneva, Switzerland. There she met Chaim Weizmann at Geneva University's Zionist Club.

In 1906 she married Weizmann at Zoppot, Prussia, today called Sopot, in Poland, and later that year they settled in Manchester, England. There they had two sons, Benjamin born in 1907, and Michael born in 1916. The Weizmann family lived in Manchester for thirty years, from 1906 until 1937. In 1913, Vera Weizmann received her English medical license and worked as a doctor in the public health service at clinics for infants, developing advanced techniques for infant supervision and nutrition.

The elder son, Benjamin (Benjie) Weizmann (1907–1980), settled in Ireland and became a dairy farmer. The Weizmanns’ younger son, Michael, served as a pilot in the British Royal Air Force during the Second World War and was killed on active service when his plane was shot down over the Bay of Biscay.

Published work

  • The Impossible Takes Longer: The Memoirs of Vera Weizmann

References

  • [http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/weizmann-vera] VERA WEIZMANN 1881 – 1966 by Esther Carmel-Hakim