Schiby, Baruch
SCHIBY, BARUCH
SCHIBY, BARUCH (1906–ca. 1976), author and journalist of *Salonika. In 1927 Schiby founded the Zionist "Achdut" club in Salonika. When the Germans attacked Greece, he managed with friends to reach Athens in a small boat. As a student in Athens in World War ii, he was involved in eam resistance activities. In Athens, he received shelter from the Greek cabinet minister Prof. Niko Louvaris, whose contacts also helped him greatly in resistance activities. He was part of a special committee of Jews from this Communist political resistance movement who persuaded Rabbi Eli Barzilai of Athens not to hand over the community lists to the new German commander, Jorgen Stroop, and to flee the community for the mountains. He also wrote about the pro-German activities of Greek intellectuals for the Greek Academy, for which he received payment in order to survive during that difficult time. In late 1944, at the beginning of the Greek Civil War when England controlled the Greek government, he was arrested by the British and sent to the Al-Daba prison camp in *Egypt, and was chosen to represent the prisoners. He returned to Salonika and became director of the Jewish community.
Known mainly for his quarterly Dhelfika tetradhia, Schiby was a prominent literary figure and a leading Zionist. His I fleghomeni vatos ("The Burning Bush," 1968) discussed the origins of the Jews and various aspects of Judaism. His book I Evrai ("The Jews"), published in 1971, depicted ancient Jewish history for his Greek countrymen. He wrote several articles on the history of the Jews of Salonika and the Samaritan presence in Salonika from late antiquity. In the 1960s, he developed relations with the Spanish Academy in its renewed contact with Sephardi philology, language, history, and culture. He also edited a bilingual Greek-Ladino Haggadah for Pessah.
add. bibliography:
Y. Kerem, "Rescue Attempts of Jews in Greece in the Second World War" (Heb.), in: Pe'amim 27 (1986), 77–109; B. Rivlin, "Athens," in: Pinkas ha-Kehillot Yavan (1999), 67–86.
[Rachel Dalven /
Yitzchak Kerem (2nd ed.)]