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Ephraim Elimelech Urbach (1912-1991) was born in Bialystok, Poland, and after rabbinical studies in Rome and Breslau, was ordained a rabbi in Poland in 1934. He immigrated to Palestine in 1938, and served with the British Army as a chaplain during World War II. Following the war, he served as a rabbi and scholar in Israel, publishing several books on Jewish history and religious law, and working to establish ancient Hebrew as a modern spoken language. He was a member of the Hebrew Language Academy, and was a president of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Israel. He died at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem on 2 July 1991. [Source: Obituary, New York Times, 3 July 1991].
Circular letters, reports, and newsletters, and related materials, collected by Rabbi Dr. Ephraim Elimelech Urbach, during the time when he served as a chaplain with the British Army, ministering in displaced persons camps in Italy, circa 1944-1947. Includes two mimeographed reports issued by the Hechalutz Ha-Echad in Bari, Italy, 1946-1947; letters sent to various institutes in Palestine requesting medical supplies, books and teaching materials for use in displaced persons camps in Italy, 1944; typescript copy of a report filed by a representative (L. Bernstein) of the Central Committee of the Organization of Jewish Refugees in Italy, describing a visit to camps in southern Italy in the wake of unrest, including attacks by refugees on UNRRA officers, October 1946; memoranda from the Jewish Chaplains Welfare Centre, 1944; and one letter, on letterhead from the Beit-Alliat Hanoar, Selvino, Italy, addressed to the Histadrut executive committee of the Department of Pioneers, Tel Aviv, 1947.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Ephraim Urbach collection