Rehovot Area

Recently, I was in a pharmacy at my local Kupat Cholim, and as I entered my Teudat Zehut number a friend from my neighborhood commented, asking how I got such a low number. I never really thought of it before but now that he mentioned it my number does begin with a 0-1-1 and has more digits in it now than when I received it. I told him I had made aliyah over 40 years ago and that the numbers are given out in consecutive order. He then commented that he had on a trip with his family not to long ago to Sde Boker and had seen that David Ben-Gurion had Teudat Zehut number 003 and wife Paula was number 004. He also wondered aloud who were numbers 001 and 002. So being always I tour guide mode in my mind, I immediately responded “Chaim and Vera Weizmann” . I then asked if he'd ever been to the Weizmann Institute . Of course the answer was no, hence the subject of this article.

I've always found it interesting to discuss the differences between the lifestyles of Ben-Gurion and Weizmann. Ben-Gurion A very simple home in Sde Boker without any unnecessary embellishments, in fact so intentionally simple that supposedly his wife may have complained about it. Weizmann on the other hand built a mansion and when one tours The Institute one sees just what it meant to live in style in those days. You will see some beautiful art works, a kitchen obviously designed for use by servants, Chaim's top-hat and tails and Vera's ball gown are laid out on the beds in their separate rooms. And all of the doorknobs are crystal. His presidential custom made Cadillac is also preserved out side the house under glass.

That's not all there is to see . The Weizmann Institute is one of the foremost multidisciplinary science research and education facilities in the world. Unlike other universities in Israel, it only offers post graduate education. The visitors center has an amazing,kid and adult friendly interactive set of displays and an audio visual 360 degree immersive virtual tour. Also being located in Rehovoth makes it really easy to get to.

Now that we're in Rehovoth, we can pop over to a site that it seems just keeps becoming more and more popular. Machon Ayalon or The Ayalon Institute aka The Bullet Factory.

This is a site that no matter how much you hear or read about it, must be experienced in order to understand. It is an underground (literally) factory that was so secret that people living in the kibbutz under which it was operating had no idea it was there. And it wasn't quiet. In fact the main entry and exit was through a laundry that operated as a real/cover business and the people operating the laundry didn't know. The British officers would get uniforms washed and pressed there, yet never discovered the factory. There was even a firing range underground.

The factory produced almost three quarters of the bullets used in the Israeli war of independence, yet remained a secret held by a bunch of kids in their late teens and early twenties. Mind boggling.

I highly recommend both of these sites, and if you're looking for a subject matter connection, Chaim Weizmann made most of his money due to scientific discovery of his acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation process for the manufacture of cordite explosive propellants (aka modern gunpowder) for the British during World War One. The same type of gunpowder is used in making modern bullets. I also recommend, time permitting stopping in close by Rishon LeZion and the museum of the first settlers.

See you out there!