Reviving The Ancient Judean Date Palm with Dr. Sarah Sallon

Please join the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies on Tuesday, December 7, 2021 at 10:30AM EST / 5:30PM ILT for a virtual talk, Reviving The Ancient Judean Date Palm with Dr. Sarah Sallon. 

In 2005, Dr. Sallon and her team germinated the most ancient seed ever grown, a 2000 year old date seed discovered during the 1960's excavations of Masada. Originally published in Science, the discovery made worldwide headlines! More recently the team has germinated additional ancient date seeds from the Judean desert and in collaboration with French and Swiss researchers examined their genetic heritage. These studies provide a fascinating insight in to the Judean Date Palm, once an iconic symbol of ancient Israel but which disappeared centuries ago, a victim of war, upheaval  and agricultural disruption.

Dr. Sallon was born and educated in the UK and has worked as a physician and researcher at Hadassah Hospital Jerusalem, since 1983. Originally trained as a pediatric gastroenterologist she founded the Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah in 1995 in order to investigate Healing in general and the healing potential of nature in particular. Her areas of interest in research include ancient medicines, eastern medical traditions including traditional Tibetan Medicine and the flora of Eretz Israel including their history, ethnobotany and conservation.

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