{{Short description|Italian statistician (1909–1995)}} {{Infobox academic | name = Roberto Bachi | honorific_suffix = | image = Roberto Bachi.jpg | image_size = 250px | caption = | native_name = רוברטו בקי | native_name_lang = he | birth_date = {{birth date|1909|01|16}} | birth_place = Rome, Italy | death_date = {{death date and age|1995|11|26|1909|01|16}} | death_place = Jerusalem, Israel | nationality = | occupation = | spouse = {{marriage|Vera Colombo|25 July 1934}} | awards = Bublick Award (1972)<br>Rothschild Prize (1977)<br>Israel Prize (1982) | alma_mater = University of Rome | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | doctoral_advisor = | discipline = | sub_discipline = | workplaces = Hebrew University of Jerusalem<br>Central Bureau of Statistics | doctoral_students = | main_interests = | notable_works = }}
'''Roberto Bachi''' ({{Langx|he|רוברטו בקי}}; 16 January 1909 – 26 November 1995) was an Italian-Israeli statistician and demographer, 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.<ref name=kosmin>{{cite journal|title=The Argument for an Inclusive and Transparent Approach to Jewish Population Studies|first=Barry A.|last=Kosmin|journal=Contemporary Jewry|volume=34|number=2|date=July 2014|pages=93–105|publisher=Springer|jstor=43547317|doi=10.1007/s12397-014-9117-y|s2cid=143838111}}</ref>
==Biography== Roberto Bachi was born to an Italian Jewish family in Rome, the son of Clelia Lampronti and economist {{ill|Riccardo Bachi|it}}. He studied law and statistics at the University of Rome, receiving a Doctor of Laws degree in 1931. He taught statistics at the University of Sassari from 1934 to 1936, and at the University of Genoa from 1936, becoming full professor in 1937.{{r|treccani}} He emigrated to Palestine following the introduction of the Italian racial laws in 1938, where he became an active ''Mapainik''.{{r|kosmin}}
Bachi worked as a statistician in the Hadassah Medical Organization (where he founded a Medical Central Bureau of Statistics), and during 1945–47 in the Department of Statistics of the Mandatory Government.{{r|jvl}} He began teaching statistics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the early 1940s.{{r|ej}} He studied the issue of sub-replacement fertility the Yishuv and corresponded extensively with major Zionist leaders of the time, conveying comparative data on the Jewish and Arab populations to David Ben-Gurion and others.<ref name=rosenbergfriedman>{{cite journal | last=Rosenberg-Friedman | first=Lilach | title=David Ben-Gurion and the 'Demographic Threat': His Dualistic Approach to Natalism, 1936–63 | journal=Middle Eastern Studies | volume=51 | issue=5 | date=2015 | issn=0026-3206 | doi=10.1080/00263206.2014.979803 | pages=742–766| s2cid=144200274 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Disciplining ethnicity: Social sorting intersects with political demography in Israel's pre-state period|first=Anat E.|last=Leibler|journal=Social Studies of Science|volume=44|number=2|date=April 2014|pages=271–292|publisher=Sage Publications|jstor=43284231|doi=10.1177/0306312713509309|pmid=24941614|s2cid=44736417}}</ref>
After World War II, the Italian Foreign Ministry invited Bachi to resume his post in Genoa, which Bachi declined.<ref name=klein>{{cite book |first=Shira|last=Klein| title=Italy's Jews from Emancipation to Fascism | chapter=Fur Coats in the Desert | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-1-108-53973-9 | doi=10.1017/9781108539739.007 | pages=156–181|year=2018}}</ref> 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.{{r|ej}}
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.<ref name=ram>{{cite book|first=Uri|last=Ram|title=Israeli Sociology: Text in Context|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uYw9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA18|date=6 November 2017|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-59327-2|pages=18}}</ref> He served as prorector of the Hebrew University in 1959–60. After his retirement in 1977, Bachi concentrated primarily on geostatistics and graphical representation of statistical data.<ref name=genus>{{cite journal|journal=Genus|volume=52|issue=1/2|year=1996|page=13|publisher=Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”|jstor=29789218|title=In Memory of Roberto Bachi}}</ref> He was awarded the Israel Prize in 1982.
Bachi died on November 26, 1995.<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4GuCDhmNuCkC&dq=%22Roberto+Bachi%22+%221995%22+November+26&pg=PA378|chapter=Obituaries: Roberto Bachi|page=378-379|author=Lloyd P. Gartner|title=Literary Strategies: Jewish Texts and Contexts|editor=Ezra Mendelsohn|publisher=Institute of Contemporary Jewry at Hebrew University of Jerusalem|year=1997|isbn=978-0-19-535468-3 }}</ref> ==Selected publications== * ''La mobilità della popolazione all'interno delle grandi città europee'' (Rome, 1933) * ''Evoluzione demografica dell'ebraismo italiano'' (Rome, 1939) * ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=h2XU5IVT02MC Graphical Rational Patterns]'' (Jerusalem, 1968) * ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=A0o8AAAAMAAJ Population Trends of World Jewry]'' (Jerusalem, 1976) * ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ohsEAQAAIAAJ The Population of Israel]'' (Jerusalem, 1977) * ''[https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/b102415 New Methods of Geostatistical Analysis and Graphical Presentation]'' (New York, 1999)
==References== {{Reflist|refs=,<ref name=ej>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Bachi, Roberto|first=Margalit|last=Bejarano|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/bachi-roberto|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Judaica|edition=2nd|access-date=26 February 2019}}</ref> ,<ref name=jvl>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Roberto Bachi|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/bachi-roberto|website=Jewish Virtual Library|access-date=26 February 2019}}</ref> <ref name=treccani>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/roberto-bachi/|title=Bachi, Roberto|language=it|access-date=26 February 2019|encyclopedia=Enciclopedia Treccani}}</ref> }}
{{S-start}} {{Succession box|title=Director of the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics| before=—| after={{ill|Moshe Sicron|he|משה סיקרון}}| years=1919–1934}} {{S-end}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bachi, Roberto}} Category:1909 births Category:1995 deaths Category:Elected Members of the International Statistical Institute Category:Fellows of the American Statistical Association Category:Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Category:Israel Prize in demographics recipients Category:Israeli demographers Category:Israeli statisticians Category:Italian emigrants to Israel Category:Italian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Category:20th-century Italian Jews Category:Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Category:Sapienza University of Rome alumni Category:Solomon Bublick Award recipients Category:Academic staff of the University of Genoa Category:Academic staff of the University of Sassari Category:Scientists from Rome Category:Burials at Har HaMenuchot Category:20th-century Italian statisticians