CARPI, LEONE

CARPI, LEONE (1887–1964), Italian Zionist leader. Carpi was born in Rome from ancient Jewish family deeply involved in the Italian National Revival (so-called Risorgimento) and graduated in law from the University of Rome and in philosophy from the University of Padua. During World War I he served in the Italian army in the artillery corps and was decorated. After the war he became an active Zionist, working mainly in Milan. Carpi was one of the first Italian Jews to join the revisionist movement (1925) and was its leader in Italy from 1928. He edited the Italian Revisionist organ L'Idea Sionistica. Carpi was the guiding spirit behind the founding of the betar naval school at Civitavecchia in 1934, and helped organize "illegal" immigration to Palestine from the Italian coast. In 1956 he settled in Jerusalem. He died there in 1964. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Scritti in Memoria di Leone Carpi (edited by Daniel Carpi, Attilio Milano, Alexander Rofé, Jerusalem, 1967). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Longo Adorno, "Un'alleanza precaria: il Betar e la scuola marittima di Civitavecchia nei rapporti della diplomazia fascista (1934–1938)," in: Clio, no. 2 (2004), 317–44. (Massimo Longo Adorno)