Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan

Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan was born in 1900 in Moscow

Naomi Feinbrun was born in Moscow in 1900 to Rachel and Aharon Feinbrun, who belonged to Hovevei Zion. The family lived in Kishinev, where she learned Hebrew, and moved to Moscow in 1907.

She finished high school in 1918 and began studying at Moscow University. After the family returned to Bessarabia in 1920, she studied at the University of Cluj and earned a degree in botany in 1923. She later wrote a doctoral thesis on the genus Bellevalia under Alexander Eig and completed it in 1938.

In 1924 she immigrated to Palestine with her family and taught at a school in Tel Adashim. She joined the botany group that became part of the Hebrew University and moved to Jerusalem. With Eig and Michael Zohary she published the first analytical flora book in Hebrew in 1931 and helped found the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens on Mount Scopus.

She taught genetics and cytology at the university and took part in research trips across the Middle East. She became an associate professor in 1960. Between 1966 and 1986 she co-wrote the four volumes of Flora Palaestina with Zohary.

In 1991 she wrote a new flora guide with Avinoam Danin and received the Israel Prize. She died in 1995 and was buried at Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem. Several plants are named after her.