Chaim Weizmann

Elected on the 16th, sworn in on the 17th

The Constituent Assembly passed the Transition Law governing the presidency and elected Chaim Weizmann by secret ballot on 16 February 1949, over Joseph Klausner: 83 votes to 15, with 15 blank and one invalid, from 114 legislators.

He was sworn in the following day, 17 February. A twelve-member delegation went to his home in Rehovot that morning to notify him formally and escort him to Jerusalem.

The oath at the National Institutions Building

Weizmann and his wife Vera arrived at Jerusalem's National Institutions Building — not today's Knesset building — where the speaker, Yosef Sprinzak, administered the oath before legislators, ministers and the two chief rabbis.

He raised his right hand and pledged allegiance to the State of Israel and its laws, formally assuming the presidency. The ceremony was reported to last about fifteen minutes.

Crowds gathered and cheered outside; archival newsreel footage records the arrival, the ceremony and the sitting that followed.

Not his first turn as head of state

Weizmann was not new to the role. He had already chaired the Provisional State Council; what changed was that Israel now had a regularly elected and sworn president rather than a provisional head of state.

The presidency was a distinct office from the prime ministership, which carried executive political leadership.

He and Vera had formally surrendered their British nationality in 1948, before he returned to Israel as provisional president — not in February 1949 in order to take the elected office.