Rabbi Yehuda Bibas' grave found after decades of searching 

In a breakthrough for historical research, the grave of Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leon Bibas—a Sephardic rabbi, physician, and early Zionist thinker—has been pinpointed in Hebron’s ancient Jewish cemetery after years of uncertainty.

The discovery marks the end of a decades-long quest to locate the resting place of a man whose radical vision for Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel predated Theodor Herzl by half a century. Situated in the “Rabbis’ Plot” between the tombstones of Rabbi Eliyahu Meni and Rabbi Chizkiyahu Medini, Bibas’s grave is poised to become a pilgrimage site for those tracing the roots of modern Zionism.

Rabbi Bibas, born in 1789 in Gibraltar to a family of Moroccan-Jewish descent, was a polymath whose life bridged continents and ideologies. His father, part of a rabbinic dynasty from Tétouan, Morocco, fled pogroms to settle in Gibraltar, while his mother descended from Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, author of the revered Or HaChayim.

Orphaned young, Bibas moved to Livorno, Italy, where he earned a medical degree alongside rabbinic training, mastering English, Italian, Spanish, and Hebrew. By 1810, he was in London, meeting Sir Moses Montefiore—a future ally in Jewish settlement efforts—and later established a yeshiva in Gibraltar that drew students from England, Italy, and North Africa.

In 1831, Bibas became Chief Rabbi of Corfu, a British-protected Greek island roiling with revolutionary currents from the Greek War of Independence (1821–1832). The Greeks’ triumph over Ottoman rule left an indelible mark on him. He began preaching a bold doctrine: the Jewish exile was not just a spiritual malaise but a political crisis demanding action. By 1839–1840, he embarked on a sweeping tour of Jewish communities across Europe and North Africa—Turkey, the Balkans, Vienna, Prague, London—urging Jews to return to Zion not as passive pilgrims but as a unified force to reclaim their homeland from the Ottomans. “Teshuva kelalit,” he called it: a general repentance encompassing physical return and self-reliance, complete with an army to liberate Palestine.

His most enduring influence came in 1839 in Zemun (modern Serbia), where he met Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, a disciple who credited Bibas with sparking his own Zionist ideas—proposals like land purchases and Hebrew revival that later shaped Herzl’s vision. Bibas’s plan was audacious: Jews worldwide would rise, arm themselves, and conquer Palestine militarily, inspired by the Vilna Gaon’s aliyah ethos and Europe’s nationalist fervor. Yet his militancy found scant support; many saw it as impractical or blasphemous, and his writings—poems, rulings, and sermons—survive only fragmentarily, mostly from Corfu’s archives.

In 1852, a year after his wife Rahel’s death, Bibas made aliyah, welcomed by students in Jaffa before settling in Hebron. There, he opened a library and continued his work until his death on April 6, 1852, at age 63. Buried in Hebron’s ancient cemetery, his grave’s location faded after Jordanian forces destroyed parts of the site during their 1948–1967 control. Traditions about the “Rabbis’ Plot” persisted, but pinpointing Bibas’s tombstone eluded researchers—until now.

Recent efforts, blending ground and aerial photography with historical testimonies, zeroed in on a spot flanked by the Menis’ and Medini’s graves. A key figure in the discovery was Yosef Ezra, born in Hebron in 1932 to the Ezra-Bibas family. Ezra, now in his 90s, recalled childhood memories of the grave’s location, passed down by his father, which aligned with archival clues. “It’s a piece of our history restored,” said Noam Arnon, a Hebron historian involved in the project, standing amid the cemetery’s weathered stones.

Bibas’s rediscovery resonates beyond archaeology. Considered a Zionist pioneer, he envisioned Jewish independence when such ideas were fringe. In 2022, President Isaac Herzog honored him on the 170th anniversary of his death, calling him “a forerunner whose contributions deserve recognition.” Some even speculate a distant link to the modern Bibas family—whose members, Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir, were tragically killed in Hamas captivity in 2023—though no evidence confirms this.

For Hebron’s Jewish community, the find is a point of pride amid ongoing tensions. The cemetery, a testament to centuries of Jewish presence, has seen renewed attention despite regional strife—like recent protests against Central Command Chief Avi Bluth.

As pilgrims prepare to visit, Bibas’s voice—preserved in Alkalai’s writings and Montefiore’s support—reemerges from the dust, a reminder of Zionism’s deep and varied roots.

Arutz Sheva contributed to this article.