Jewish Federation of the Berkshires and Shakespeare & Company are honored to present Jehuda Reinharz PhD, President Emeritus of Brandeis University and recipient of the President of Israel Prize (1990 and 2024) for a discussion of the life of Chaim Weizmann.
In Chaim Weizmann: A Biography, Jehuda Reinharz and Motti Golani show how Weizmann, a leader of the World Zionist Organization who became the first president of Israel, advocated for a Jewish state.
Born in 1874, Weizmann grew up in Russian-controlled Poland. Within his family, Weizmann noted how the return to a Jewish homeland in Palestine “was at the center of ritual, a longing for it implicit in our life.” Weizmann’s initial career was as a biochemist. His research offered significant aid to Britain’s military efforts during World War I; this work later allowed him to meet with major British political figures on Zionism’s behalf. A fierce advocate for education and research, Weizmann founded what would become the multidisciplinary Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot in 1934.
Co-sponsored by Jewish Federation of the Berkshires and Shakespeare & Company.
Jehuda Reinharz earned his doctorate in modern Jewish history from Brandeis University in 1972. In 1994, Professor Reinharz became the seventh president of Brandeis University and, in January 2011, was named president of the Mandel Foundation. Professor Reinharz is the author of or co-author of 31 books, among them Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Zionist Leader (1985) and Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Statesman (1993). He is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates. In addition, he is an elected member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations.
