Yitshak Elazari-Volcani

Yitzhak Elazari Volcani (1880 to 1955), born Yitzchak-Avigdor Wilkansky in Eišiškės in the Russian Empire, was a writer, agronomist and botanist who pioneered agricultural research in Israel and founded the Volcani Center of Agricultural Research. He took a degree in agronomy at the University of Königsberg and went to Palestine in 1908, where he directed experimental farms at Ben Shemen and Huldah. He founded the first agricultural research station in the country, which later became a faculty of the Hebrew University. A member of Hapoel Hatzair, he favoured the moshav over the kibbutz, believing in personal freedom of creation, and he sat on the Executive Committee of the Zionist Organization in Palestine and advised the World Zionist Organization. He also wrote plays and articles in Hebrew under the pseudonyms Ben Avuya and A. Zioni.