WEIZAC: Israel’s First Computer

WEIZAC (Weizmann Automatic Computer) was built in 1954–1955 at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, based on John von Neumann's design for the computer of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Albert Einstein, consulted about the project, reportedly doubted that a small young country needed a computer; von Neumann answered that the mathematician Chaim Pekeris alone could keep it busy. A team led by the American engineer Gerald Estrin built it with a handful of local technicians, and it ran its first calculations in 1955, when only a few dozen such machines existed worldwide.

Pekeris used WEIZAC to compute the tides of the world's oceans, predicting an amphidromic point (a spot with no tide) in the Atlantic that was later confirmed by measurement. The machine served until 1963, trained Israel's first generation of computer scientists and engineers, and was recognized as an IEEE Milestone in 2006; parts of it are displayed at the Weizmann Institute.