Waldemar Mordechai Wolff Haffkine was born on March 15, 1860 in Odessa. He was a prominent immunologist and microbiologist and who developed and used vaccines against chlorela and bubonic plague, philantropist.
Waldemar's parents, Aaron Haffkine, a Jewish schoolmaster and Rosalie Landsberg, a daughter of a Hebrew teacher, moved from Odessa to Berdyansk due to financial difficulties. There Haffkine studied at the header, later graduated from the Russian gymnasium. During his years of study he showed brilliant abilities, especially in the field of natural sciences. Waldemar dreamed of entering the university, but the family lacked the funds to pay for tuition. With the help of his older brother, he made his dream come true. In 1884, Haffkine graduated from Novorossiysk University in Odessa, where his teacher was the famous scientist Ilya Mechnikov. During his student years he took an active part in political life: he spoke out against the Jewish pogroms; was an activist of the Jewish League for Self-Defense in Odessa. As a result, he was twice expelled from the university and repeatedly arrested.
In 1888, Haffkine was appointed associate professor at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland). In 1889, on the recommendation of I. Mechnikov, he began work at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He first worked as a librarian and later as a researcher. In summer of 1892, Haffkine published several articles describing for the first time a new method of "vaccinating against cholera": After a report to the Paris Biological Society on July 9, 1892, Haffkine's method for treating cholera (using a weakened virus) was officially approved. In the same year, at the height of the epidemic in Europe, the scientist introduced his own vaccine, becoming a national hero of France and gaining the recognition of Louis Pasteur himself. Haffkine offered to transfer his vaccine free of charge to the Russian Empire, where the epidemic was raging at the time. But, because of his Jewish origin, he was refused. However, the British authorities understood the enormous significance of Haffkine's discovery. Therefore, in 1893 the British authorities gave permission to a scientist, as a state bacteriologist, to test the vaccine in British colony - India. Over the next two years, Haffkine established the production of the vaccine, introduced mass vaccination, and personally vaccinated more than 42,000 people. Since then, mass production of the Haffkine vaccine has begun. In an upgraded form it is still used today.
In 1897, the scientist defeated one of the most deadly diseases on Earth - bubonic plague, which broke out in Bombay (now Mumbai). In the laboratory he created, Haffkine developed an anti-plague drug and re-performed a professional feat - he tested the vaccine on himself. The epidemic was overcome. Later, the laboratory in Bombay became the largest research bacteriological and epidemiological center in South Asia. In 1925, it was officially renamed the Haffkine Institute. For his achievements, the scientist was awarded one of the highest orders of the British Empire.
His brilliant career in 1902 was interrupted by a fabricated case that was openly anti-Semitic. As a result of false accusations, the scientist was fired. Only after the public intercession of world-renowned scientists, Haffkine was acquitted.
After retiring, Waldemar devoted his life to matters related to the Jewish people. In 1920 he became a member of the Central Committee of the World Jewish Union. He supported the idea of creating a Jewish state in Palestine. Together with like-minded people, he wrote a paper on the rights of Jews in the Land of Israel and the diaspora, which he offered to the participants of the Geneva Peace Conference.
In 1928, the scientist moved to Lausanne, where he spent the rest of his life. He donated all his property, as well as $ 300,000, to the Foundation for the Promotion of Young Talents of the Jewish Religious Schools of Eastern Europe. Waldemar Haffkine died in Lausanne on October 28, 1930. The day of his death became a day of national mourning in India. Today, Indians still worship Haffkine as a deity. He is called here, like Mahatma Gandhi - "Great Soul".