- 10 years after Theodore Herzl,
the father of modern Zionism died,
his dream of an independent Jewish nation was floundering.
Palestine became a major World War I battleground,
with many parties hoping to stake their claim.
One Jewish chemist, Chaim Weizmann used his crucial position
in British war efforts to rally support
for the Jew's claims on their historic homeland.
[upbeat music]
Theodore Hertzl started the Zionist political movement
in the 1890s, convinced that anti-semitism
would forever rankle the Jews
if they without a state and independent government.
He had tried to purchase Israel's territory
from the near bankrupt Ottoman Empire,
or at least bargain for unlimited Jewish immigration.
When those plans failed, he turned his attention
to getting the top European powers behind the Zionist cause,
so they could exert pressure on the Ottomans.
When Herzl met an untimely death in 1904, Chaim Weizmann,
an ambitious Russian-born British Jewish biochemist
was determined to carry on Herzl's torch.
Chaim Weizmann was in high school in Belarus
when he first discovered his two passions,
chemistry and Zionism.
At age 30, he immigrated to Britain,
taking a professorship at the University of Manchester.
When he had the opportunity to meet Arthur Balfour,
Prime Minister of Britain in 1905,
Weizmann converted Balfour to the Zionist cause
with a moving petition for the Jews connection
to their ancestral homeland.
Weizmann spent the next decade trying to advance
both Zionism and his scientific career,
until one of his patents caught the eye
of vice admiral of the Navy, Winston Churchill.
In the second year of World War I,
Churchill was desperately searching for acetone,
a former German import, which was crucial
for the production of smokeless gun powder.
Churchill was delighted to discover the Weizmann process,
which used bacterial fermentation to produce acetone.
Weizmann was appointed director
of the British Admiralty laboratories in 1916.
He took advantage of his status to petition for Zionism,
and many politicians,
including the wartime prime minister,
were persuaded by the merits of his case
for a renewed Jewish homeland.
At the time, the Zionist mission
was more pressing than ever.
The Jewish population in the land of Israel,
then called Palestine, was greatly suffering
under the rule of the Ottomans.
The Ottoman Empire had joined the central powers,
and the Middle East became another front
against the allied forces.
The Ottomans expelled 10%
of the 80,000 Jews living in Palestine
on baseless claims of harboring enemy sympathies.
These Jews were resettled
in miserable refugee camps in Alexandria, Egypt.
The remaining Jewish population in Palestine
was cut off from selling their regular exports,
or receiving financial support
from diaspora Jews around the world.
As a result, thousands starved
or died in devastating plagues.
Even worse, some Jews feared they'd share a similar fate
to the one million Armenians who had been systematically
mass murdered in 1915 by the Ottomans.
In March of 1915 in the height of the first world war,
over 500 able-bodied Jewish deportees in Alexandria
volunteered to assist the British army against the Ottomans.
They formed what was called the Zion Mule Corps.
Their iron-willed leader was eager
to take the might of his forces back to Palestine
and fight the Ottomans directly.
He petitioned Britain
but the London War Office brushed off his request.
Chaim Weizmann, however, jumped on the opportunity
to push the petition forward,
as it proved how dedicated Zionists were
to British interests.
But unbeknownst to Weizmann,
who was slowly garnering support for a Jewish homeland
in Israel, the British were leading three partners along
in a dance that was bound to break a few hearts.
Some British officials had already promised
Arab independence in the Middle East,
with boundaries that included Palestine
in exchange for Arab armed forces to join
in the battle against the Ottomans.
France also believed they would gain a piece
of the stewardship of Palestine,
should the allies win the war.
By 1917, the allied forces were no closer to victory,
and Chaim Weizmann used this to Israel's advantage.
British war planners speculated
that Jewish money and influence could perhaps
sway the United States to finally join the war,
and Weizmann subtly stoked this belief.
These British diplomats were also hopeful
that Russian Jews who were at the forefront
of the post-tsarist leadership would help Russia in the war
if Zionist interests were involved.
Weizmann made plans to go to Russia and speak
with the leading Jewish revolutionaries on Britain's behalf.
Ironically, all these speculations
on Jewish influence were baseless.
The small minority of Jews in these countries
did not control world politics.
Still, leading British politicians were fueled to support
what they had already deemed a righteous Zionist cause.
As Churchill leader explained,
"It is manifestly right that the Jews who are scattered
"all over the world should have a national center
"and a national home.
"We think it will be good for the world,
"good for the Jews, and good for the British Empire,
"but we also think it will be good
"for the Arabs who dwell in Palestine."
On October 31st, 1917,
British parliament authorized a formal letter
from Lord Balfour to Lord Rothschield,
expressing Britain's official support
of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Jews around the world rejoiced.
Not long after, the Ottoman hold on Palestine ruptured.
And the holy land fell into British hands.
Balfour's letter to Rothschield was only one of dozens
of war time promises to gain support of the allied cause,
many of which never panned out.
Weizmann, however, was determined to hold Balfour
and other diplomats accountable.
He was the first to refer to Balfour's letter
with the weightier title, the Balfour declaration.
Herzl's dream for international recognition
of a Jewish homeland had finally been realized.
Tragically, in the shifting politics of the post-war world,
this meant less than Herzl had hoped.
Palestinian Arabs, incensed by the British mandated rule
and the growing Jewish population staged murderous attacks
on Jewish settlements.
The British, eager to appease the Arabs,
greatly limited Jewish immigration to Palestine.
These limitations held fast,
even with a shocking rise of Nazism in the 1930s and 40s.
Weizmann petitioned in vain for six
out of nine million European Jews to flee Nazi threats
and immigrate to Palestine.
By 1945, only three million of these Jews
had survived Hitler's genocide.
The British mandate for Palestine was arguably
more favorable to the Jewish people than Ottoman rule,
and the Balfour Declaration planted the seed
for the future state of Israel.
However, Israel's independence was only truly accomplished
when the Jews were done
in trusting their fate to other nations.
On May 14th, 1948,
the Jewish state was proudly reestablished
after a 1,900 year forced exile,
and Chaim Weizmann was elected
as the first president of Israel.
[upbeat music]