WILBUSCHEWITZ

WILBUSCHEWITZ , family of pioneers in Ereẓ Israel. The head of the family, ze'ev wilbuschewitz, was a landowner who lived near Grodno, Lithuania, and whose children joined the Zionist movement. His eldest son, isaac, went to Ereẓ Israel with the *Bilu group in 1882, but contracted yellow fever, returned to Russia, and drowned in the Neimen River. gedaliah wilbuschewitz (1865–1943), a mechanical engineer, went to Ereẓ Israel in 1892 and was a founder of a machine and metal-casting factory in Jaffa. This was the first Jewish enterprise of its kind in the country. During World War i he served as chief engineer of Jamal Pasha's headquarters in Damascus. After the war he worked as an engineer in Haifa. He published "Mi-Zikhronot Ḥalutz ha-Ta'asiyyah ha-Ivrit" in Sefer ha-Aliyah ha-Sheniyyah (1947). moshe wilbuschewitz (1869–1952), a chemical engineer and inventor, improved the margarine production process and invented a type of whole-meal bread (leḥem ḥai). He went to Palestine in 1919 and was one of the founders of the Shemen edible-oil products factory in Haifa. He held novel opinions on meteorology and climatology and established a special laboratory bearing his name at The Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus in order to engage in research in this field. naḤum wilbush (wilbuschewitz; 1879–1971) was a mechanical engineer. He moved to Ereẓ Israel in 1903 and founded Atid, the first edible-oil factory in the country, at first situated in Ben Shemen and later in Haifa. He was a member of the Zionist Organization's delegation to East Africa to survey the possibilities for Jewish settlement in Uganda, and his book Ha-Massa le-Ugandah (1963) is a diary of this journey. During World War i, he served as an engineer in the Turkish army and was responsible for supplying water to the forces stationed in the Damascus region. Their sister was Mania Wilbuschewitz *Shochat.

bibliography:

Tidhar, 2 (1947), 939, 950;4 (1950), 1705: 5 (1952), 2430.

[Yehuda Slutsky]