Roberto Bachi (; 16 January 1909 – 26 November 1995) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

statistician A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may wor ...

and

demographer Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...

, and founder of the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. His research focused on the graphical presentation of statistics and the renewal of Jewish demographic studies in the

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

Biography

Roberto Bachi was born to an

Italian Jewish Italian Jews ( it, Ebrei Italiani, he, יהודים איטלקים ''Yehudim Italkim'') or Roman Jews ( it, Ebrei Romani, he, יהודים רומים ''Yehudim Romim'') can be used in a broad sense to mean all Jews living in or with roots in I ...

family in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, the son of Clelia Lampronti and economist . He studied law and statistics at the University of Rome, receiving a

Doctor of Law A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL ...

s degree in 1931. He taught statistics at the

University of Sassari The University of Sassari ( it, Università degli Studi di Sassari, UniSS) is a university located in Sassari, Italy. It was founded in 1562 and is organized in 13 departments. The University of Sassari earned first place in the rankings for ...

from 1934 to 1936, and at the

University of Genoa The University of Genoa, known also with the acronym UniGe ( it, Università di Genova), is one of the largest universities in Italy. It is located in the city of Genoa and regional Metropolitan City of Genoa, on the Italian Riviera in the Liguri ...

from 1936, becoming

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

in 1937. He

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

to Palestine following the introduction of the Italian racial laws in 1938, where he became an active ''

Mapai Mapai ( he, מַפָּא"י, an acronym for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', lit. "Workers' Party of the Land of Israel") was a democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger in ...

nik''. Bachi worked as a statistician in the

Hadassah Medical Organization Hadassah Medical Center ( he, הָמֶרְכָּז הָרְפוּאִי הֲדַסָּה) is an Israeli medical organization established in 1934 that operates two university hospitals in Jerusalem – one in Ein Karem and one in Mount Scopus –, ...

(where he founded a Medical Central Bureau of Statistics), and during 1945–47 in the Department of Statistics of the Mandatory Government. He began teaching statistics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the early 1940s. He studied the issue of

sub-replacement fertility Sub-replacement fertility is a total fertility rate (TFR) that (if sustained) leads to each new generation being less populous than the older, previous one in a given area. The United Nations Population Division defines sub-replacement fertilit ...

the

Yishuv Yishuv ( he, ישוב, literally "settlement"), Ha-Yishuv ( he, הישוב, ''the Yishuv''), or Ha-Yishuv Ha-Ivri ( he, הישוב העברי, ''the Hebrew Yishuv''), is the body of Jewish residents in the Land of Israel (corresponding to the ...

and corresponded extensively with major Zionist leaders of the time, conveying comparative data on the Jewish and Arab populations to

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the nam ...

and others. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the Italian Foreign Ministry invited Bachi to resume his post in Genoa, which Bachi declined. By 1945, Bachi had become associate professor of statistics at the Hebrew University, and was promoted to full professor in 1947. He was also appointed Statistician General of Israel with the foundation of the state in 1948, and founded Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics in 1949, which he directed until 1971. At the same time Bachi was among the founders of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Hebrew University and served as its first dean from 1953 to 1956. He served as

prorector Academic rank (also scientific rank) is the rank of a scientist or teacher in a college, high school, university or research establishment. The academic ranks indicate relative importance and power of individuals in academia. The academic rank ...

of the Hebrew University in 1959–60. After his retirement in 1977, Bachi concentrated primarily on

geostatistics Geostatistics is a branch of statistics focusing on spatial or spatiotemporal datasets. Developed originally to predict probability distributions of ore grades for mining operations, it is currently applied in diverse disciplines including p ...

and graphical representation of

statistical data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted. ...

. He was awarded the Israel Prize in 1982. Bachi died on November 26, 1995.

Selected publications

* ''La mobilità della popolazione all'interno delle grandi città europee'' (Rome, 1933) * ''Evoluzione demografica dell'ebraismo italiano'' (Rome, 1939) *
Graphical Rational Patterns
' (Jerusalem, 1968) *
Population Trends of World Jewry
' (Jerusalem, 1976) *
The Population of Israel
' (Jerusalem, 1977) *
New Methods of Geostatistical Analysis and Graphical Presentation
' (New York, 1999)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bachi, Roberto 1909 births 1995 deaths Elected Members of the International Statistical Institute Fellows of the American Statistical Association Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel Prize in demographics recipients Israeli demographers Israeli statisticians Italian emigrants to Israel Italian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine 20th-century Italian Jews Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Sapienza University of Rome alumni Solomon Bublick Award recipients Academic staff of the University of Genoa Academic staff of the University of Sassari Scientists from Rome