Zev Vilnai

Zev Vilnay (Hebrew: זאב וילנאי‎, 1900–1988) was an Israeli geographer, author and lecturer.

Volf Vilensky (later Zev Vilnay) was born in Kishinev. He immigrated to Palestine with his parents at the age of six and grew up in Haifa. He served as a military topographer in the Haganah, and later in the Israel Defense Forces.

Vilnay and his wife Esther lived in Jerusalem. One son, Matan was a politician who served as a member of the Knesset and held several ministerial portfolios before becoming ambassador to China. Their eldest son is Oren Vilnay, an expert in structural Engineering who established a new department of Civil Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Vilnay was a pioneer in the sphere of outdoor hiking and touring in Israel. Vilnay lectured widely on Israeli geography, ethnography, history and folklore. His Guide to Israel was published in 27 editions and translated into many languages.

In the 1974 edition of his guide, Vilnay describes how he helped bring back to Israel the boat of a British naval officer, Thomas Howard Molyneux, who sailed the Jordan River from Lake Kinneret to the Dead Sea to map the region in the 19th century.

Vilnay was a member of the first place-naming committee established by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion in 1950.

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