Calling Himself a "Wandering Jew" Chaim Weizmann Dreams of a Jewish University "Of Our Own" In Jerusalem

From the very beginning of his finding (and founding) Zionism, University lecturer Weizmann dreamed, lobbied, and worked for a Jewish University in Jerusalem. Writing just two years after Herzl’s death - and Weizmann’s assumption of the leadership role - this early letter to his  English tutor, expresses the Zionist dream, in less than perfect English, for “a University of our own.”

I would be really very proud, could I get a degree in a University of our own, in a Jewish Univer. Imagine only a graduate of a University on the Mount Zion… a beautiful dream.

Weizmann continues that he is dreadfully busy “racing from the East to the West” but will be coming into London next Saturday and, “if you don't mind and have a corner for a wandering Jew," will stay with the van Gelders and “revive old reminiscences.”

Autograph Letter Signed, 2 pages, octavo, on the letterhead of The Victoria University of Manchester, Manchester, England, July 18, 1906. To Mietje van Gelder in London.