Lithuanian-born Schapira was a math professor at the University of Heidelberg. He first proposed creating what became the Jewish National Fund to purchase and develop land in Palestine. At the First Zionist Congress in 1897 he suggested establishing Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He wrote for Hebrew newspapers, including articles about Jewish settlement, and founded a Zion society in Heidelberg.
Photo: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, CC BY-SA 4.0