May 26 sunday. Day at Weizmann Institute in Rehovot. We took #434 bus from Jerusalem to Rehovot that   takes 45 minutes and then walked 30 minutes to entrance. You have to show passport to get thru security. I went into first building which was an administration building to get some literature ( none exist all only on web) but saw a screen with seminar topics and time. One on stem cells was starting in 2 minutes. We walked quickly to correct building saW SOME gREAT FOOD AND GOOBLED DOWN SOMETHINGS AND WENT IN TO HEAR PROf. BLAU FORM OF ALL PLACES, STANFORD. SHE GAVE AN INCREDIBLE TALK ON 4 DIFFEReNT AREA ALL BREAK THRU RESULTS. UNFORTUNATELY ROBERTA COULDn't FOLLOW ONLY SMALL AMOUNT AND AFTER TRIES TO FILL HER IN TO KEY  CONCEPTS. WE THEN WENT TO LUNCH AT VISITOR CENTER AN HAD GREAT BUSINESS MENS SPECIAL , THAT  is WHAT LUNCH DEALs are CALLED, OF SEA BREAM ON CHICKPEAS THAT WAS Delicious. IT CAME WITH THE SALAD BAR, FILLED WITH UNUSUAL  Israeli salads. Then Prof. Blau an her Israeli hosts cam and sat next to us. so we introduced ourselves to her. Roberta remarked she has 2 degrees from Stanford.

We then went to the Visitor Center for some really high tech stuff. You touch a red laser beam with your hand and then by raising your hand still the red beam on it, you control the image that goes from start to finish showing some  scientific something. The several scientists talked about their discoveries including  the woman who got Nobel prize in 2009 on working structure of the ribosome.

We then walked to Weizmann's House that was built in 1936-7 by architect Erich Mendelsohn who also designed B'nai Amoona in 1948-9(?). It is a very large modern home with the same round windows B'nai Amoona had. When he became the first President of Israel it  became the official residence. After he died in 1952 and after his widow Vera  died  it became a museum with all their furniture and art intact. Dr. Weizmann had 120 patents and made a key contribution to the English war effort in WW1 by making an economical process for production of acetone used for explosives. Incredibly while at Manchester university he became friends with Lord Balfour and Lord George who later became Prime Minister and issued the famous Balfour Declaration granting the Jews a homeland in Palestine without exactly spelling out any details. He became friends with all leading figures including Harry Truman who he meet   at a critical time obtaining American support.


Weizmann was one of those  very rare individuals who could do it all, science,
diplomacy, government,  and creation and head of several key Zionist organization. They lost one of their 2 sons in combat in the Independence War.

We then walked back by several very unusual designed buildings and ran in a friendly guy, Dr.  Tsvee Lepidot  who turned out to be Head of Stem cell research. He told us about the stain on several buildings that I couldn't identify but was made a bats that are very numerous in Israel,all fruit eating.

Taking the bus back from the Rehovot bus station we were home in 1.5 hours for a great day.