Laboratory, Research Institute, City of Science:
From the Daniel Sieff Research Institute to the Weizmann Institute of Science, 1934-1949
Uri Cohen
On the 3rd of April 1934 a small and modest research institute was established in Rehovot. The research institute by the name Daniel Sieff, on the initiative of Dr. Haim Weizmann, president of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. The institute, these days Weizmann Institute of Science, designated to research only, without teaching or awarding degrees, presuming that only pure research can lead to scientific quality results and practical worth. This unusual, special institute aspired scientific inspirations for society's and national good, and for a development that influenced the difficulties the new Jewish society was facing. What were the conditions that enabled the development of modern science in a country with a lack of raw materials, a small population and being far away from any western science's center? Who were the groups and personalities that were brought to establish the Daniel Sieff Institute? What was the part that the practical and pure science had in establishing a unifying frame that strove towards the creating of the nation? How did these kinds of development contribute to the promotion for national projects and the amplification of social solidarity? How did the academic institutions and political streams in Israel respond to the Sieff Institute's founding? What factors pushed the expansion of the institute's scientific activities to the City of Science?