A 93-year-old Hebron native has helped correctly identify the location of the grave of Rabbi Yehuda Bibas. After comparing his memories to new aerial footage and old photographs, the correct tombstone has been verified in the once desecrated cemetery.
Rabbi Bibas was an influential Jewish leader, Chief Rabbi of Corfu, Greece, and early advocate of aliyah to Israel in the mid-1800s. He spent his last days in Hebron and his exact burial spot has been unidentified since the Jewish community was forced out following the 1929 Hebron massacre and desecration of the ancient cemetery.
But now, thanks to new research, the exact burial plot has been authenticated.
Rabbi Bibas was born in 1789 to a Sephardic Jewish family in Gibraltar, a descendant of Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, author of the Or Ha-Hayyim. He became a doctor in Italy and was fluent in English, Italian, Spanish and Hebrew. He met with Sir Moses Montefiore and worked on projects to establish Jewish communities in the Land of Israel, then under Turkish rule. He was a mentor to Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, another forerunner to modern Zionism.
Inspired by the Serbian and Greek revolts against the Ottoman Turks, Rabbi Bibas advocated mass repatriation of Jews to Israel and toured Europe to advocate aliyah. In 1852 Rabbi Bibas made the permanent move to the Land of Israel, initially to Jaffa and later to Hebron were he built his extensive library and was appointed supervisor of the Magen Avot fund.
He was buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Hebron, near the graves of many other great Jewish sages including Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas, author of the Reisheet Hochma, Rabbi Avraham Azoulai, Rabbi Shlomo Adani, Rabbi Haim Hezekiah Medini, author of the Sdei Hemed and other famous sages. The Jewish community of Hebron used to hold a ceremony for him every year on the eve of Yom Kippur.
The custom of the ancient Hebron community was to place heavy blocks of rock upon the graves. Names were not written on the tombstones. The identity of each grave was passed down by tradition from generation to generation.
After the deadly riots of 1929 when the community was evicted, a large part of the traditions and heritage of Hebron was lost. Most of the ancient cemetery was desecrated and demolished by the Jordanians. Graves were plowed over and vegetables were planted in the cemetery. However, most of the tombstones in the Rabbinic plot miraculously escaped destruction and remained in place.
After the return to Hebron in 1967, the Jewish community in Hebron, the members of the Religious Council and the Hevra Kadisha made efforts to locate the names of those buried. With the help of the old timers of Hebron, in a long and laborious process, some of the graves were identified, but the exact location of the grave of Rabbi Yehuda Bibas remained a mystery.
Although the cemetery was cleaned and rebuilt, the mystery of the grave of Rabbi Bibas continued for decades. Public interest in his teachings and philosophy has risen in recent years and the question of his burial location was raised again.
In recent months, a renewed effort began to locate the grave of Rabbi Yehuda Bibas. The tombstones in the Rabbinic Plot were photographed again, both from the ground and from the air, and the testimonies and traditions about the grave site were re-examined.
Slowly, the circles closed, with the unique help of Yosef Ezra, a native of Hebron, the last surviving member of the old Committee for Hebron, and a direct relative of the Bibas family.
Yosef Ezra was born in 1932 in Hebron to Yaakov Shalom Ezra and Sarah Bibas. His family was the only one that continued to live in the city after the expulsion of the Jews. They returned both after the 1929 Hebron massacre and after the 1936 eviction. The Ezra family lived in Hebron until the day after the United Nations partition vote on November 29, 1947 when it became too dangerous. Yosef Ezra has been a member of the Committee for Hebron since 1952, and possesses a great deal of unique knowledge about the city and its history.
He remembered as a child visiting the grave of Rabbi Yehuda Bibas and that it was between Rabbi Eliyahu Mani and his son Rabbi Suleiman Mani and the tombstone of Rabbi Haim Hezkiyahu Medini.
While re-examining the series of photographs of the cemetery, the location of the tombstone became clear. It is located exactly where Yosef Ezra remembers, between the tombstones of the Mani family, Rabbi Eliyahu Mani, his wife Samra Mani, his son Rabbi Suleiman Mani, and the tombstone of Rabbi Haim Hezkiyahu Medini, opposite the tombstone of Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas.
As was customary in Hebron, the tombstone is a large, heavy, and impressive stone, made from the rocks of Hebron, which are known for their density. The identity of other tombstones is being verified and information will be released in the future.
Rabbi Yehuda Bibas was a pioneer in encouraging Jewish people to go beyond just prayer and fasting and to engage in self-defense in the face of persecution and reestablish communities in their ancestral homeland. In recent years he has been honored by the Israeli president and others who recognize his influence on modern Israel.
Andrew Bonar, a Scottish traveler wrote about Rabbi Bibas in his 1839 book. He spoke of meeting a follower of Rabbi Bibas who described his as such:
“He told us much of Rabbi Bibas from Corfu whom he called ‘a grand rabbi,’ who lately passed through Ibraila on his way to Bucarest, travelling to seek the reformation of his brethren, and who had preached to the Jews here. This rabbi had left a deep impression upon the Jews here and elsewhere. The young man spoke with great admiration of him and of his sentiments, and especially of this one, that the Jews must be instructed in science and in arms, that they may wrest the land of Palestine from the Turks as the Greeks wrested their country.”
Upon meeting Rabbi Bibas, Bonar wrote:
“He is a genuine Pharisee of the old school, rigidly observing the Jewish law. Some time since, he prohibited his people from carrying an umbrella on the Sabbath, as a violation of the fourth commandment. The Jews here are generally very strict in their observance of the Sabbath…
Rabbi Bibas received us politely. He spoke English with great fluency, told us he was a native of Gibraltar, and was proud of being a British subject. He has a congregation of 4000 under his care in Corfu.
Immediately he began to speak of the situation of the Promised Land, asking us to say, Why God chose Israel for his peculiar people, and that portion of the earth as their land? Much conversation arose on these points, and as often as we tried to break off and introduce something more directly bearing on our object, he stopped us by affecting great logical accuracy, and holding us to the point, if we had any pretensions to the character of logical reasoners.
On our rising to take leave, and mentioning that love to Israel had brought us to visit him, He said that he was travelling for the sake of his degraded brethren, to see what might be done for them; and was anxious to meet with Sir Moses Montefiore on his return from the Holy Land.”
After the correct identification of the grave, a ceremony was held at the cemetery to place a temporary name marker. Haim Bibas, mayor of Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut, a distant relative, was honored with placing the nameplate on the grave, 173 years after his passing. Joining him was researcher Dr. Noam Arnon, Hebron mayor Eyal Gelman and former head of the Kiryat Arba city council Malachi Levinger. The uncle of Haim Bibas was also named Yehuda Bibas and was killed in the terrorist attack in Beit Shean in 1974. His memory was also honored during the ceremony.
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