(born Nov. 27, 1874, Motol, Pol., Russian Empire—died Nov. 9, 1952, Re&hsubdot;ovot, Israel) Russian-born Israeli chemist and first president of Israel (1949–52). After studying in Germany and Switzerland, he earned a doctorate in chemistry and patented several dyestuffs before moving to England to teach in 1904.
His 1912 discovery of a bacterium that could convert carbohydrate to acetone proved of great value to the British armaments industry in World War I (1914–18), and in return the government aided his negotiations for the Balfour Declaration (1917). In 1919 he obtained an agreement on Jewish-Arab coexistence in Palestine from Fay&ssubdot;al I, and in 1920 he became president of the World Zionist Organization, a post from which he was ousted in 1931. He settled in Re&hsubdot;ovot, Palestine, in 1937. Despite conflicts with more extreme Zionists, he was sent to the U.S. to secure support for Israel in 1948, and in 1949 he was elected president.
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