Vera Weizmann

Vera Weizmann was a Russian-born physician and Zionist who became the first First Lady of Israel. Born in Rostov-on-Don in 1881, she began studying medicine at the University of Geneva in 1899, where she met her future husband Chaim Weizmann. After the couple settled in Manchester she received her English medical licence in 1913 and worked in the public health service at infant clinics, developing techniques for infant supervision and nutrition, before giving up her pediatric work in 1916 to join her husband during the First World War. She was a founding member of the Women's International Zionist Organization, headed Youth Aliyah in England, and after the 1948 war set up rehabilitation centres for wounded soldiers. She died in London in 1966.