Summary
Pinhas Rosen, as Lahav presents him: minister of justice in Israel’s provisional government for the tiny Progressive Party — an appointment Lahav reads as showing law was not MAPAI’s priority — a prominent lawyer of German background who built the new judiciary with his attorney general Jacob S. Shapiro, preferred the continental legal model, and spoke against the bar’s excessive formalism (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1010-1050).
Details
- Rosen sacrificed Simon Agranat’s nomination to the first five Supreme Court seats to the General Zionists’ demand for Shneur Z. Cheshin, to obtain a unanimous Provisional State Council vote, giving Agranat the Haifa district-court presidency and a hint of a sixth seat, which Agranat took up in January 1949 (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1030-1080).
- Inaugurating the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on 13 September 1948, Rosen handed the judges the court as “this child of joy, precious of precious”, in language Lahav reads as thinking of redemption (geulah) (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1060-1090).
- His return as minister of justice, replacing Bernard Joseph, preceded passage of the Judges Law on 20 August 1953 formally recognising judicial independence (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 1265-1280).
Related pages
Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, Simon Agranat, Jacob S. Shapiro, Israeli Supreme Court