Politicsאריה קובובי

Ariel Leon Kubowy

Aryeh Leon Kubovy was a lawyer, Zionist activist and Israeli diplomat, a founder of the World Jewish Congress and later chairman of Yad Vashem.

1896 to 1966Co-founding the World Jewish CongressIsraeli diplomacy in Europe and South AmericaChairing Yad Vashem

Born: 2 November 1896, Kuršėnai
Died: 16 May 1966, Jerusalem
Occupation: politician

Ariel Leon Kubowy was born in 1896 in Kuršėnai

Kubovy was born in 1896 in Kuršėnai, Lithuania, the sixth of 11 children. His father, Avraham Zvi Kubowitzki, was a cantor and ritual slaughterer. In 1906 the family moved to Belgium.

He studied at the Free University of Brussels and the University of Liège, earning doctorates in classical philology and in law. He worked as a lawyer in Antwerp and then Brussels from 1926 to 1940. He was active in Zionist and Belgian socialist politics and was elected to the Antwerp city council in 1929.

In 1936 he helped found the World Jewish Congress. During World War II he fled to the United States and headed the congress's rescue department. He served as its Secretary-General from 1945 to 1948.

After moving to Israel, he served as envoy to Czechoslovakia and Poland from 1951. In 1952 Czechoslovakia declared him persona non grata and he left Eastern Europe. From 1953 to 1958 he represented Israel in Argentina and other South American countries.

In 1959 he became chairman of Yad Vashem and started the public committee for recognizing the Righteous Among the Nations. He held the post until his death in Jerusalem in 1966. He was married to Myriam Kubovy.