Vera Weizmann was born in Rostov, Russia to Isaiah and Feodosia Chatzman. Her parents had seven children, but only the boys received a Jewish education. Therefore the girls did not know either Yiddish or Hebrew. Vera studied music at the Rostov Conservatory. At the age of 14 she decided she wanted to study medicine, and at the age of 18 she left her parents' home and moved to Geneva for this purpose.
Vera first met Chaim Weizmann in 1901 at the Jewish Students' Club in Geneva. They were married on August 23, 1906. Benjamin, their first son, was born in 1907 in England. After qualifying as a doctor in England, Vera was appointed to manage seven clinics for pregnant women and infants up to their first birthday. Vera was one of the first women to work in medicine in Manchester. In 1916 their second son Michael was born.
In 1917, she founded the Women's Committee of the English Zionist Federation, whose purpose was to recruit more women to the Zionist Movement. When the family moved to London, due to Chaim's work, Vera stopped working in her profession and devoted most of her time to wide-ranging public work both overseas and in the Land of Israel. In 1935, Chaim and Vera Weizmann decided to settle in the Land of Israel in Rechovot, where they built their home. During World War II the couple returned to England, and Vera worked as a doctor in a shelter in a poor area of London run by the Red Cross. When Chaim was elected President of the State, the couple returned to their home in Rechovot.
Vera was very active in establishing institutions for the rehabilitation of soldiers, gave their beautiful garden to be used as summer camps for children with polio, was the Honorary President of the Red Magen David, and was always responsive to the distress in the endless requests she received from the public during the early years of the State of Israel. Vera Weizmann died on September 24, 1966 and was buried next to her husband Chaim Weizmann in Rechovot. After her death the Weizmann home became a national preservation site, open to visitors from all over the world.
