Herman Zvi Shapira (Lithuania-Germany) was a Rabbi, mathematician, and Zionist leader. He was among the first members of the Hovevei Zion movement, and while a professor at Heidelburg he devoted much of his time to the Zionist ideal. He proposed two revolutionary ideas - one was to buy up large parcels of land in Eretz Israel and lease them out for agricultural purposes; an idea which led to the establishment of the Jewish National Fund in 1901. His second idea was the promotion of a plan to found the first Hebrew University in Eretz Israel.