This is the story of a boy who was born in a dim marshland community in Poland; who grew up in the stockade of a forgotten ghetto life, but who dared to dream that his people, scattered for two thousand years, could be a nation again. Through his efforts, that dream came true and Chaim Weizmann became the First President of Israel.

When he left the ghetto for an outside education, he went to Germany to study chemistry; but because he was a Jew he was hated by his Russian and German classmates alike, and life in Berlin became a nightmarish experience. He began to pour all of his energies into the two things that interested him most—chemistry and Jewish nationalism.

This led him to England where he worked for colonies in Palestine through the Congress created by Theodore Herzl and where with his skill as a scientist, he kept British guns roaring during World War I, when he produced tons of acetone; and during World War II, when he provided the wonder of sythetic rubber to keep the wheels of victory turning. And here he lost his beloved younger son Michael, who fell in battle over the English Channel.

He served as President of the World Zionist Organization for twenty-five years, and as self-elected fund-raiser for the Jewish cause for almost half a century. He built the David Sieff Institute of Science in Palestine. He saw the Emek Zezreel conquerored and he helped to start the conquest of the Negev desert. He appeared as a statesman for his people before the League of Nations and before the United Nations.

He saw the population of Palestine grow from five thousand to over a hundred thousand. He lived through the terrible slaughter of one-third of his people, the greatest ordeal of blood-letting in all history; yet his heart was staunch and he went right on building. 

He became the First President of the newly founded nation of Israel, and the beloved leader who after two thousand years brought his people back to Canaan. 

In this penetrating study of a man with vision, courage and faith, Rachel Baker tells also the story of a people in bondage and of their indomitable will to survive and achieve a homeland of their own.

From the dust jacket