Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Statesman

Abstract

This is the second volume of Reinharz's definitive three-volume biography of Weizmann. It focuses on Weizmann's rise to prominence and his work as a statesman and leader of the Zionist movement from the outbreak of World War I to 1922. It was in these years that Weizmann played a major role in winning from the British the Balfour declaration (1917) - which favoured the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine - and lobbied internationally to gain support for the Zionist cause. Reinharz's biography of Weizmann is in many ways a history of the Jews in this period. The author places Weizmann's leadership and his political achievements in the context of Great Power politics, the tensions between Zionists and Jewish anti-Zionists, the attitude of the Zionist movement towards Arabs, and the impact of Zionism on the collective identity of European Jewish communities.