Charles Dreyfus

Charles Dreyfus was a French-born British Zionist activist and the President of the Manchester Zionist Society, a member of Manchester [City Council] and a leading figure in the East Manchester Conservative Association during the time that Arthur Balfour was Member of Parliament for the constituency and Prime [Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]. In 1876 Dreyfus founded the Clayton Aniline Company and was Elected to membership of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society on 8 January 1885

Biography

Dreyfus studied chemistry in Strasbourg. He emigrated to Manchester in 1869, where he established the Clayton Aniline Company in 1876. As a councillor he led the campaign for a Jewish hospital.
At Dreyfus' suggestion Balfour and the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann first met at a constituency meeting on 27 January 1905. Dreyfus had been introduced to Weizmann by the Zionist activist and writer Joseph Massel. Dreyfus was Weizmann's employer in Manchester and remained a friend until his death.
Charles Dreyfus was a distant relative of Alfred Dreyfus, the young Jewish artillery officer at the centre of the notorious French political scandal, the Dreyfus affair.