Bibas – a name for the ages

Wiki Commons

The name Bibas resonates deeply, as it reaches back to the earliest beginnings of the Jewish national revival and its movement Zionward.

Back to the rabbi of Corfu, Yehuda Bibas (1789-1852), who was among the first committed proponents of the idea of a Jewish restoration in Eretz Israel.

Indeed, through face-to-face, personal contacts, Bibas impacted the nascent convictions of the ultimately far more influential Zionist leader Yehuda Alkalai (1798-1878) from today’s Belgrade, Serbia. And Alkalai, as many of us know, was the rabbi of Theodor Herzl’s grandfather and father.

Such is 19th-century Zionism’s phylogenesis.

Of course, the name Bibas now will resonate deeper still. In anguish, yes. In wrath.

And in time, I pray, in dedication to the unfinished work which Israelis have thus far so nobly advanced.

About the Author

Philip Earl Steele is an American historian based in Poland, specializing in the history of early Zionism. His recent book on Theodor Herzl, published by the Polish Academy of Sciences, is available in Open Access: https://publikacje.pan.pl/book/146852/on-theodor-herzl-s-encounters-with-zionist-thought-and-efforts-prior-to-his-conversion-in-the-spring-of-1895?language=en