Yehuda Bibas

Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Aryeh Leon Bibas (or Judah Bibas) ( – April 6, 1852) was a Sephardic rabbi, best known as one of the most prominent forerunners of the modern Zionist movement. He also served as the Chief Rabbi of Corfu, Greece

Biography

Early life Bibas was born in Gibraltar to Sephardi Jews descended from those who were expelled from Spain and settled in North Africa. His father came from a line of rabbis in Tétouan that immigrated to Gibraltar after a pogrom. One of his maternal ancestors was Chaim ibn Attar.

As a child, Bibas studied in Gibraltar. Following his father's death, he moved to Livorno, Italy, to live with his grandfather. Livorno had a very prestigious and educated Jewish community. Bibas received in Livorno most of his Jewish and secular education, becoming fluent in English, Italian, Spanish and Hebrew. He became a rabbi and trained as a physician while in Italy. He later returned to Gibraltar and established himself as the head of a local yeshiva. His yeshiva was attended by students from England, Italy and North Africa.

In 1810, he came to London, England, where he met with Jewish activist and philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore. Montefiore helped to fund Bibas's activism.

In 1831, Bibas was appointed as the Chief Rabbi of Corfu, Greece.

Proto-Zionist activism In 1839–1840, Bibas visited many Jewish communities, particularly those of Europe. Inspired by the Serbian and Greek revolts against the Ottoman Turks, Bibas began advocating a mass repatriation of Jews to Israel (then part of the Ottoman Empire). In the same year, he met Judah Alkalai and became Alkalai's mentor. Alkalai went on to become an influential proto-Zionist himself.

Aliyah and death In 1852, one year after his wife died, Bibas made aliyah and was welcomed by his students in Jaffa. Later, he moved to Hebron, established a seminary, and built his extensive library. He died two months after his arrival and was buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Hebron.

Legacy The Jewish community of Hebron used to hold a memorial ceremony for Bibas every year on Yom Kippur evening. This tradition ended with the 1929 Hebron massacre that forced nearly all the city's Jews to flee. In 2022, Israel's President Isaac Herzog commemorated Bibas on the 170th anniversary of his passing in a ceremony at the President's Residence calling him "one of the first forerunners of Zionism... his tremendous historical contribution has not received sufficient recognition." In Israel, a street in Jerusalem is named in his memory.

In 1953, Prof. Solomon Zeitlin made the claim that the Dead Sea Scrolls may have come from Bibas's library after having been looted during the 1929 Hebron massacre.