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Israeli Leaders
- Aaron Aaronsohn |
Aharon's Jewish Books and Judaica
600 South Holly Street Suite 103
Denver, Colorado 80246
303-322-7345 / 800-830-8660 |
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 Aaron
Aaronsohn (Hebrew: אהרון אהרנסון; 1876–May 15, 1919) was a
renowned Romanian-born Palestinian Jewish agronomist, botanist,
traveler, entrepreneur, and Zionist politician.
Aaronsohn is remembered primarily as the
discoverer of wild emmer (Triticum dicoccoides), which he believed
to be "the mother of the wheat." He was also the founder and head
of Nili, a ring of Jewish patriots spying for the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland during World War I. Owing to
information supplied by Nili to the British Army, General Edmund
Allenby was able to mount a surprise attack on Beersheba,
unexpectedly bypassing strong Ottoman defenses in Gaza.
Aaron Aaronsohn was born in Bacău, Romania, and
brought to Palestine, then part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, at
the age of six, when his parents were among the founders of
Zichron Yaakov, one of the pioneer Jewish agricultural settlements
of the First Aliyah.
After his study in France, sponsored by Baron
Edmond de Rothschild, Aaron Aaronsohn botanically mapped Palestine
and its surroundings and became a leading expert on the subject.
On his 1906 field trip to Mount Hermon, he discovered Triticum
dicoccoides, an important find for agronomists and historians of
human civilization. It made him world-famous and, on a trip to the
United States, he was able to secure financial backing for a
research station he established in Atlit - the first experimental
station in the Levant.
After the war, Chaim Weizmann called Aaronsohn
to work on the Versailles Peace Conference but Aaronsohn was
killed in an airplane crash over the English Channel. His research
on Eretz Israel and Transjordan flora, as well as part of his
exploration diaries, were published posthumously. |
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