Aaron Aaronsohn

Aaron Aaronsohn was born in Bacău (possibly Fălticeni), Romania, to a grain merchant; the family moved to Palestine to become farmers in Zikhron Ya‘akov in 1882. Completing his studies in Grignon, France, under Baron Edmund de Rothschild’s patronage, Aaronsohn returned to Palestine, eventually becoming the leading agronomist of the fledgling Zionist Yishuv, discovering indigenous wild wheat, encouraging the adoption of modern agricultural technologies, and advocating for water-sharing partnerships with neighboring Arab communities. In 1909, he established the botanical research station in Atlit with financial backing from American donors. In 1915 with his sister Sarah, he founded the Nili espionage group to support British war efforts in Palestine in the hopes that British conquest of the era from the Ottomans would facilitate the creation of a Jewish state. His work as an agronomist, tied to the practical aims of Jewish settlement in Palestine, was also deeply intertwined with a Zionist vision of Jewish cultural revival through agrarianization and return to nature.