Israel Aharoni (1882 - 1946 he, ישראל אהרוני) was a zoologist in Ottoman and British Palestine widely known as the "first

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...

." Aharoni is best known for collecting a litter of

Syrian hamster The golden hamster or Syrian hamster (''Mesocricetus auratus'') is a rodent belonging to the hamster subfamily, Cricetinae. Their natural geographical range is in an arid region of northern Syria and southern Turkey. Their numbers have been de ...

s on an expedition to Aleppo, Syria. The hamsters were bred as laboratory animals in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, but some escaped through a hole in the floor. The majority of hamsters in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

today are thus said to be descended from this one litter.

Biography

Israel Aharoni was born in

Vidzy Vidzy (; ; ; ; ) is an urban settlement in the Vitebsk Region, in Belarus. In 2014, its population was .Official estimation of the population on 1 January 2014, se''pop-stat.mashke.org'' History During World War II, Vidzy was occupied by Nazi G ...

Kovno Governorate Kovno Governorate ( rus, Ковенская губеpния, r=Kovenskaya guberniya; lt, Kauno gubernija) or Governorate of Kaunas was a governorate ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire. Its capital was Kaunas (Kovno in Russian). It was forme ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(in present-day

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

). His father, Avraham Yossef Aharonovich, was the Rosh yeshiva of Vidzy and died before his son Israel was born. Israel lost his mother as well when he was two years old. Being an orphan, he lived with his grandmother and studied at a

Cheder A ''cheder'' ( he, חדר, lit. "room"; Yiddish pronunciation ''kheyder'') is a traditional primary school teaching the basics of Judaism and the Hebrew language. History ''Cheders'' were widely found in Europe before the end of the 18th ...

and later on at the

Telshe yeshiva Telshe Yeshiva (also spelled ''Telz'') is a yeshiva in Wickliffe, Ohio, formerly located in Telšiai, Lithuania. During World War II the yeshiva began relocating to Wickliffe, Ohio, in the United States and is now known as the Rabbinical College ...

. At the age of 13, Israel ran away from his home to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

, were he attended school and later on continued to learn

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

at Charles University. He

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

to Palestine in 1901, which was then under Turkish rule. His early zoological expeditions took place under the protection of the local Sultan, for whom he obtained

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...

specimens. Many of his collected specimens can still be viewed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Zoology career

Aharoni discovered 30 previously unknown species of animals, insects and birds, and is credited with giving them Hebrew names. In 1930, Aharoni set off to look for Syrian hamsters at the request of his colleague

Saul Adler Saul Adler FRS ( he, שאול אדלר; May 17, 1895 – January 25, 1966) was an Israeli expert on parasitology. Early life Adler was born in 1895 in Kerelits (Karelichy), then in the Russian Empire, now in Belarus. In 1900, he and his family ...

, a

parasitologist Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it ...

who was looking for an easily breedable alternative to the Chinese hamster for research on the disease Leishmaniasis. Syrian hamsters had been discovered and named by

George Robert Waterhouse George Robert Waterhouse (6 March 1810 – 21 January 1888) was an English naturalist. He was a keeper at the department of geology and later curator of the Zoological Society of London's museum. Early life George was born in Somers Town t ...

in 1839 but had not been sighted since. Together with a Syrian guide named ''Georgius Khalil Tah'an'', Aharoni managed to discover a

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materi ...

containing a female and eleven young in the Aleppo region. However, cannibalism of one of the litter by the mother, and the subsequent death of the mother, meant that Aharoni had to hand-rear the pups during the journey back. The four that made it were bred successfully and used extensively in laboratories, before being introduced to the pet market in the 1940s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aharoni, Israel 1882 births 1946 deaths People from Braslaw District People from Novoalexandrovsky Uyezd Belarusian Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire Ashkenazi Jews in Ottoman Palestine Ashkenazi Jews in Mandatory Palestine 20th-century Israeli zoologists Taxonomists Charles University alumni Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives