Summary
Benjamin Halevy, in Lahav’s account: the Jerusalem district court judge whose 234-page judgment in the Kasztner Trial held that Rudolf Kasztner “had sold his soul to Satan”, and who, as president of the district court, would not stand aside from the Eichmann Trial until the statute was amended so a Supreme Court justice could preside (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1471-1732, 1733-1936).
Details
- Sitting alone, Halevy referred to Kasztner throughout as K, anonymising him into the Judenrat generally; Simon Agranat’s appeal opinion praised his opinion as “reasoned, detailed and most impressive” while identifying its main flaw as the use of historical hindsight (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1500-1610).
- His watchman metaphor — a guard who gives the enemy a list of his friends and does not alert the camp commits treason — was the district court’s figure for Kasztner’s collaboration; Agranat held it “completely irrelevant” because a watchman’s duty is ministerial, not discretionary (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1650-1690).
- In 1960 Chief Justice Olshan repeatedly implored Halevy “to put the interests of the State above his concern for personal reputation and honor” and step aside from presiding over Eichmann’s trial, to no avail; Halevy sat on Landau’s panel instead (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1733-1800).
Related pages
Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, Kasztner Trial, Eichmann Trial, Moshe Landau