Naomi Feinbrun was an early botanical researcher in Israel and a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Feinbrun (Dothan was a Hebrew name she appended later) was born in Moscow and attended the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Moscow University from 1918. When her family moved to Bessarabia in 1920, Feinbrun left Russia and began studying botany at the University of Cluj, Romania, where she received her degree in botany in 1923. The following year she moved to Palestine, where she taught at a school before meeting botanist Alexander Eig, who encouraged her to join the new Hebrew University in 1926.
With fellow botanists Alexander Eig and Michael Zohary, under the direction of Otto Warburg of Berlin, Feinbrun began studying the flora of Palestine and neighbouring countries. Their observations would lay the foundations for phytogeographic research in the Middle East, while their collections formed the basis of the Hebrew University herbarium.
The three botanists jointly published the Hebrew language Analytical Key to the Flora of Palestine (1931), which went through several editions. As well as Latin binomials, it included names in Hebrew, many of which were devised by them.
In 1933 Feinbrun joined a delegation of seven Hebrew University scientists who were invited to Iraq by the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture. Their main purpose was to conduct a survey of the forests of Kurdistan, preparing an inventory of trees and presenting a proposal for afforestation and forest preservation. Other research expeditions in which Feinbrun participated were to Transjordan, the Sinai Peninsula, Lebanon, Cyprus and, in 1944, to the eastern desert in Egypt.
Feinbrun was particularly interested in liliflorous plants and completed a monograph on the genus Bellevalia (1938-1940) for her PhD. She later made taxonomic and cytotaxonomic studies of Allium, Colchicum, Crocus and other genera, while continuing studies of the general Palestinian vegetation.
In 1952 Feinbrun was promoted from instructor to lecturer, and the following year spent a sabbatical in England at the Kew herbarium. She also visited the herbaria in Edinburgh and Geneva. She was promoted to associate professor in 1960.
Officially retiring in 1968, Feinbrun continued with her research, publishing her major works Flora Palaestina volumes 3 and 4 in 1978 and 1986. An updated Analytical Key, co-authored with Avinoam Danin, also appeared in 1991.
Feinbrun died shortly before her 95th birthday. She is commemorated in thee plant names Astragalus feinbruniae, Bellevalia feinbruniae and Colchicum feinbruniae.
Sources:
C.C. Heyn, 1995, "Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan (1900-1995)", Taxon, 44(4): 651-652
N. Kirsh, "Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan", Jewish Women's Archive:
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/feinbrun-dotan-naomi, accessed 2 July 2012
F. Leimkugel, 2005, "Botanischer Zionismus: Otto Warburg (1859-1938) und die Anfänge institutionalisierter Naturwissenschaften in 'Erez Israel'", Englera, 26: 293-294.
