Alexander Eig (, ; 1894 – 30 July 1938) was a

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

, one of the first plant researchers in Israel, head of the department of

Botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

at the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

and co-founder of the National Botanic Garden of Israel on

Mount Scopus Mount Scopus ( ', "Mount of the Watchmen/ Sentinels"; ', lit. "Mount Lookout", or ' "Mount of the Scene/Burial Site", or "Mount Syenite") is a mountain (elevation: above sea level) in northeast Jerusalem. Between the 1948 Arab–Israeli ...

campus.

Biography

Alexander Eig Laying the Groundwork for the Botanical Garden on Mount Scopus

Alexander Eig was born in Schedrin near Minsk. He used to wander in the forests and join his family on hunting and fishing expeditions observing the plants around. At the age of 15 he

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, where he became a student at

Mikveh Israel Mikveh Israel () is a youth village and boarding school in the Tel Aviv District of central Israel, established in 1870. It was the first Jewish agricultural school in what is now Israel and indeed the first modern Jewish settlement in Palestine ...

agricultural school. Alexander Eig and Eliezer Factory

In 1925 he was invited by Otto Warburg to join the agricultural experimental station in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

, where he worked with

Michael Zohary Michael Zohary (; born 9 April 1898 in Bóbrka, Galicia (Austria-Hungary); died 16 April 1983 in Jerusalem) was a pioneering Israeli botanist. Biography Michael Schein (later Zohary) was born into a Jewish family in Bóbrka, near Lviv (then Aus ...

. A year later, the unit moved to Jerusalem, and they joined the staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. That year he married Itta Faktorovsky, the sister of his closest friend and fellow botanist Elazar Faktorovsky. In 1931 he graduated with his Ph.D., and founded the

Botanic Garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

on Mount Scopus, together with Zohary and Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan. In 1932 he started teaching

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. Among his students were the brothers

Aaron According to the Old Testament of the Bible, Aaron ( or ) was an Israelite prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of Moses. Information about Aaron comes exclusively from religious texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament ...

and Ephraim Katzir. On 1937 he was invited by

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi Yitzhak Ben-Zvi ( ''Yitshak Ben-Tsvi''; 24 November 188423 April 1963; born Izaak Shimshelevich) was a historian, ethnologist, Labor Zionism, Labor Zionist leader and the longest-serving president of Israel. He was 1952 Israeli presidential elec ...

to testify before the Peel Commission, on the question of whether the country could sustain a large population. He was later asked to prepare a map that would serve the arguments of the Zionist side in the international arena. Eig died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

in 1938, at the age of less than 44 years. He was buried in the Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery. His gravestone bears the inscription "The creator of plant science in Israel." He was eulogized by

Moshe Sharett Moshe Sharett (; born Moshe Chertok (); 15 October 1894 – 7 July 1965) was the second prime minister of Israel and the country’s first foreign minister. He signed the Israeli Declaration of Independence and was a principal negotiator in th ...

Hugo Bergmann Hugo Bergmann (Hebrew language, Hebrew: שמואל הוגו ברגמן; December 25, 1883 – June 18, 1975) was an Israeli philosopher, born in Prague. Biography Hugo Samuel Bergmann was born and raised in Prague, Austria-Hungary. He was a mem ...

Judah Leon Magnes Judah Leon Magnes (; July 5, 1877 – October 27, 1948) was a prominent Reform rabbi in both the United States of America and Mandatory Palestine. He is best remembered as a leader in the pacifist movement of the World War I period, his advocacy ...

and

Works

* * With

and Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan he organised the distribution of plant specimens from Israel in the

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

series.Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2024 ''IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae''. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany. The first series issued in 1930 is entitled ''Flora exsiccata Palaestinae a sectione botanica Universitatis Hebraicae Hierosolymitanae edita''.

Taxonomic patronyms

In honor of Alexander Eig, four taxonomic patronyms were given in plants with names of genus, species and subspecies: * '' Eigia longistyla'' (Eig) Soják * '' Bellevalia eigii'' * '' Poa eigii'' * '' Salvia eigii'' * '' Ornithogalum neurostegium'' subsp. ''eigii'' ( Feinbrun) Feinbrun

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eig, Alexander 1894 births 1938 deaths Israeli botanists Jewish Legion personnel Jewish biologists Belarusian Zionists Scientists from Minsk Deaths from cancer in Israel Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire Natural history of Palestine (region) Immigrants of the Second Aliyah