Zeev Vilnay | |
|---|---|
זאב וילנאי | |
.jpg) Zeev Vilnay in 1970 | |
| Born | (1900-06-12)June 12, 1900 |
| Died | 21 January 1988(1988-01-21) (aged 87) |
| Known for | Guide to Israel |
| Spouse | Esther Vilnay |
| Awards | Israel Prize, 1982 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Geography |
Zeev Vilnay (Hebrew:זאב וילנאי; 12 June 1900 – 21 January 1988) was an Israeligeographer, author and lecturer.
Zev Vilnay was born asVolf Vilensky inKishinev,Russian Empire (now inMoldova). Heimmigrated toPalestine with his parents at the age of six and grew up inHaifa. He served as a militarytopographer in theHaganah, and later in theIsrael Defense Forces.[1]
Vilnay and his wife Esther lived inJerusalem. Their eldest son, Oren Vilnay, is an expert instructural engineering who established the Department of Civil Engineering atBen-Gurion University of the Negev. The other son,Matan Vilnai, was a General in theIsraeli Defense Forces, who later became a politician who served as a member of the Knesset and held several ministerial portfolios before becoming ambassador toChina during 2012-2017.
Vilnay was a pioneer in the sphere of outdoor hiking and touring in Israel. Vilnay lectured widely on Israeli geography, ethnography, history and folklore.[1] HisGuide to Israel was published in 27 editions[2] and translated into many languages.[3]
In his 1950 bookThe Hike and Its Educational Value, Vilnai traced the Jewish emphasis on walking the Land of Israel back to the Bible. He describes a continuous historical thread that passes through the Jewish sources, and quotes the Talmudic dictum that anyone who walks three or four cubits through Erez Yisra'el merits a place in the world to come (Ketubot 111a).[4]
In the 1974 edition of his guide, Vilnay describes how he helped bring back to Israel the boat of a British naval officer,Thomas Howard Molyneux, who sailed theJordan River from theSea of Galilee to theDead Sea to map the region in the 19th century.[5]
Vilnay was a member of the first place-naming committee established byPrime MinisterDavid Ben-Gurion in 1950.[6]In 2021 aChair for the study of the knowledge of Land of Israel (‘Yediath Ha’Aretz’) and its archaeology, named after Zev Vilnay, was founded in the Department of the Land of Israel Studies at theKinneret College on the Sea of Galilee. The Chair serves as a framework for the advancement of academic studies which deals with the history of the research of these subjects. In addition, the Chair will distribute the research carried out in the field and make it accessible to the non-academic Land of Israel lovers in the general public.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
