BAR-DAROMA (Schermeister), ḤAYYIM ZE'EV

BAR-DAROMA (Schermeister), ḤAYYIM ZE'EV (1892–1970), Israeli geographer. Bar-Daroma was born on a farm near Volkovysk, Poland, and in his youth studied in the famous Lithuanian yeshivot of Mir and Slobodka, secretly acquiring at the same time a knowledge of Russian and secular subjects.

In 1911 he joined his parents who had settled in the ica settlement of Sejera (see *Ilaniyyah) and later moved to Petaḥ Tikvah. In 1918 he moved to Jerusalem where he adopted the name of Bar-Daroma and was one of the first students of the Hebrew University, studying among other subjects the geophysical history of Ereẓ Israel, geology, and archaeology. After receiving his M.A. in 1938, he proceeded to the United States where he continued his education at Dropsie College, receiving his doctorate in 1942.

Returning to Israel in 1946, he engaged in teaching until ill health forced him to relinquish it in 1951. Thereafter he devoted himself to research in the geography of Ereẓ Israel and published articles on topical subjects and literary criticism.

His first major work on the geography of Ereẓ Israel, Ha-Negev, was published in 1935. A physical geographical study of the area from Beersheba to the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, which according to Bar-Daroma was mistakenly called Sinai, this book won him the Bialik Prize from the City of Tel Aviv in 1936. In the same year his book Jerusalem, on the topography of the Old City, was published. His most important work, Ve-Zeh Gevul ha-Areẓ (1958), was awarded the Rabbi Ouziel Prize of the City of Jerusalem in 1959 and the Ramat Gan literary prize.