Sieff, Rebecca Doro Marks

(1890–1966)

   British Zionist leader. Rebecca, the eldest of Simon MARKS’S four sisters, married Israel SIEFF, her brother’s friend and partner in Marks and Spencer.

   Tall and striking-looking, ‘Becky’ Sieff had the family drive and organizing ability, and devoted these qualities to building up an independent women’s Zionist movement. At the end of World War I, she was a founder and the first president of the Federation of Women Zionists of Great Britain. Soon after, in 1920, she helped to establish the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) and for the next two decades served as co-chairman with Vera, the wife of Dr WEIZMANN. After 1940 Mrs Sieff became honorary president. An effective platform speaker, she travelled throughout the world on behalf of WIZO and Zionist fund-raising campaigns. With the rise of Hitler, she was active in assisting German-Jewish refugees, and in 1938 organized the evacuation of a thousand Jewish children to Britain.

   In the mid–30s, the family built a home among their orange groves at Tel Mond, and Mrs Sieff spent much of her time living there, in spite of the constant danger of Arab marauders from across the nearby Jordan border. The Daniel Sieff Research Institute at Rehovot was established in memory of a son who died young, and developed into the Weizmann Institute of Science, directed by Dr Weizmann. In 1960, Mrs Sieff was awarded the Order of the British Empire for her welfare and humanitarian work. A number of WIZO centres in Israel carry her name.