Soskin, Zelig

Zelig Soskin was born in 1873 in Churubash (Tauride province) in the family of Iehezkel and Rachel Soskin. After graduating from high school, he continued his studies at the in Berlin, after which he received an agricultural diploma. After that he entered Rostock University , where he graduated with a doctorate in philosophy ^[1] .

During his studies, Soskin joined the Palestinian student circle, the founders of which were Leo Motzkin and Shmarjahu Levin . In 1896, he immigrated to Palestine ; there, the local branch of the Odessa movement "Hovevei Zion" appointed him to the post of agronomist. In the same year, Soskin married Sophia Berman. In 1887, he took part in the foundation of Castina's moshavim (in the future Beer-Tovia ), leading the work as the plenipotentiary of the Hovevei Zion. Since 1898, Soskin managed plantations in Hadera , and also supervised the planting of eucalyptus groves to drain the surrounding marshes ^[1] .

In 1900, managing land reclamation work in Gan Shmuel near Hadera, Soskin fell ill with malaria , which was severe in his condition. After that, he moved his family to Zichron Yaakov . There began a collaboration between him and Aaron Aaronson . Together with engineer Joseph Treidel, they opened a consultation where they trained private entrepreneurs planning to set up agricultural enterprises in Palestine. In 1903, Soskin was included in the Zionist commission, commissioned by Theodor Herzl to study the potential for creating an agricultural settlement in El Arish on the Sinai Peninsula . In the same year in Germany, he took part in the VI Zionist Congress , where, together with Otto Warburg and Franz Oppenheimer, he was elected to the commission for the survey of the Land of Israel . In 1904 he published a monthly commission called Altneuland , where he published important results of her research ^[2] .

Since 1906, Soskin served as an agricultural adviser to the German colonies in Africa ^[3] . In this role, he made seven trips to Africa and took part in the creation of German companies producing rubber , cocoa , tobacco and bananas . Along the way, Soskin visited the English and French colonies, mastering the practice of farming in the tropical regions. Cooperation with the German colonial companies continued until 1915, when it was interrupted by the World War ^[4] .

In 1918, Soskin was appointed to the post of head of the settlement department of the Jewish National Fund ^[3] . In this position, he launched propaganda of the ideas of intensive agriculture , which would make it possible to obtain significant resources from limited sown areas. As part of the implementation of these ideas, Soskin studied the experience of North American and Far Eastern agriculture. In 1921, Soskin's plan for the development of agricultural settlements along an intensive path was approved by the Zionist Congress in Karlovy Vary, however, the Congress allocated only a small amount for the implementation of this plan, most of which were directed to traditional extensive agriculture. Subsequently, Soskin continued to attempt to increase funding at a number of congresses, but was faced with the indifference of most delegates to his ideas. His work in the settlement department of the Jewish National Fund in The Hague ended in 1923 when he returned to Palestine. After visiting the United States in the late 1920s, Soskin completed work on the smallholder program, and in 1934 its implementation was started in Nahariya , one of the founders of which he became ^[4] .

The only leader of the Zionist movement to listen to Soskin’s ideas was Vladimir Zhabotinsky . At his invitation, Soskin joined the Revisionist Party , where he played the role of the main expert on agriculture and one of the main ideologists of the settlement. In 1927, he represented the party before the League of Nations in Geneva. In 1933, when there was a split in the revisionist movement due to plans to leave the World Zionist Organization , Soskin, however, sided with the faction that remained in the WZO under the name “Party of the Jewish State” ^[4] . During the Arab uprising of 1936-1939, Soskin was invited to speak as a representative of Nahariya before the Peel Commission , which studied the issue of dividing Mandate Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, and proved to the members of the commission that Western Galilee should remain under Jewish control ^[5] .

Although the experimental economy of Nahariya was doing well, its size did not satisfy Soskin, whose plans included the dense population of the country on the basis of intensive agriculture. To overcome the natural difficulties in the infertile areas, he began developing a hydroponic farming plan. For several years, successful experiments on the use of hydroponics were carried out in Nahariya, Jerusalem and the Beit Ha Arawa kibbutz at the mouth of the Jordan , and since 1945 in Ramat Gan , but neither in Palestine nor among the Jews of the United States there were anyone who wanted to implement this idea on an industrial scale. Only in 1947, the Jewish Agency allocated funds for the development of an experimental hydroponic station in the settlement of Beit Eshel , but after the outbreak of the War of Independence of Israel, this settlement was evacuated and destroyed ^[4] .

After Israel gained independence, Zelig Soskin continued to popularize hydroponics and other methods of intensive agriculture in the country ^[4] . In 1958, shortly before his death, he became a laureate of the Israel Prize in the field of natural sciences ^{[3] [6]} . He died on February 26, 1959, at the age of 86, at the Hadassah Hospital in Tel Aviv ^[7] . He was buried in the cemetery of Nahariya ^[8] .

• David Tidhar. Dr. Zelig (Eugene) Soskin // Encyclopedia of pioneers and builders of Yishuv = אנציקלופדיה לחלוצי הישוב ובוניו (Hebrew) . - 1952. - T. 5. - S. 2094-2095.
• Soskin Zelig-Eugene - article from the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia