KUBOVY (Kubowitzki), ARYEH LEON

KUBOVY (Kubowitzki), ARYEH LEON (1896–1966), Zionist leader, Israel diplomat, and writer. Born in Kurshany, Lithuania, Kubovy received a traditional Jewish education in his native town, and a secular education in Belgium, where he settled with his parents in his childhood. He became a prominent lawyer and leader of Belgian Jewry up to the outbreak of World War ii. He was a leading figure in the anti-Nazi *boycott movement in the 1930s. When Nazi Germany occupied Belgium in 1940, Kubovy went to the U.S. and from there directed the *World Jewish Congress rescue work for European Jewry, later becoming wjc secretary-general. He submitted rescue plans to the allied governments and to the pope. In 1948 he went to Israel and became its minister to Poland and Czechoslovakia. He served there during the difficult years of the early 1950s, when both countries followed the Soviet antisemitic policy, and was declared persona non grata during the *Slansky trial. He was Israel minister (later ambassador) to Argentina and minister to Chile and Paraguay in 1953–58. In 1959 he was elected chairman of the *Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority, the leading institution in research on the Holocaust, and served in this capacity until his death in Jerusalem. Kubovy was the author of several books, among them the history of the World Jewish Congress, Unity in Dispersion. A Festschrift in his honor Im Eshkaḥekh ha-Sho'ah; Ne'umim ve-Harẓa'ot appeared in 1967.

His wife miriam (née Goldstein; 1898–?) was a writer. She was active in women's organizations and wrote in French and Hebrew.

bibliography:

A. Weiss, in: Yad Vashem Bulletin, no. 19 (1966), 3–7; A. Tartakower, ibid., 8–10; N. Eck, ibid., 11–17.

[Alexander Tobias]