Zeev Vilnay (Hebrew: זאב וילנאי, 12 June 1900 – 21 January 1988) was an Israeli geographer, author and lecturer.

The other son, Matan Vilnai, was a General in the Israeli Defense Forces, who later became a politician who served as a member of the Knesset and held several ministerial portfolios before becoming ambassador to China during 2012-2017.

[3] In his 1950 book The Hike and Its Educational Value, Vilnai traced the Jewish emphasis on walking the Land of Israel back to the Bible.

He describes a continuous historical thread that passes through the Jewish sources, and quotes the Talmudic dictum that anyone who walks three or four cubits through Erez Yisra'el merits a place in the world to come (Ketubot 111a).

In addition, the Chair will distribute the research carried out in the field and make it accessible to the non-academic Land of Israel lovers in the general public.