Pinchas Rosen

Template:Infobox member of the Knesset Pinchas Rosen (Hebrew: פנחס רוזן, born Felix Rosenblüth, 1 May 1887 - 3 May 1978) was an Israeli politician and statesman, and the country's first Minister of Justice, serving three times during 1948-51, 1952–56, and 1958-61. He was also leader of the Independent Liberals during the 1960s.

Biography

Rosen was born in Berlin, Germany. He studied law in universities in Freiburg and Berlin, graduating in 1908, and later served in the German army in World War I. Always active in Zionist circles, Rosen was Chairman of Zionist Federation in Germany from 1920–1923, and eventually migrated to Palestine in 1926 where he practiced as a lawyer and helped create the Central European Immigrants Association.

Political career

In 1942 Rosen founded the New Aliyah Party, and was elected to the Assembly of Representatives on its list in 1944. In 1948 he was among the signatories of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, which he helped drafting.

The New Aliyah Party evolved into the Progressive Party, and Rosen was elected to the Knesset in the 1949 elections. The party joined David Ben-Gurion's Mapai in forming a coalition, and Rosen was made Israel's first Minister of Justice, an office to which he brought a strong reputation for intellect and probity.

He retained his seat and Ministerial position in the 1951, 1955 and 1959 elections. Soon after the 1959 election the Progressive Party merged with the General Zionists to form the Liberal Party.

The new party won the third largest number of seats in the 1961 elections but was not invited into the coalition, and Rosen lost his ministerial position. In order to consolidate opposition to Mapai's hegemony within Israeli politics, the Liberal Party merged with Herut to form Gahal. Rosen, however, was unhappy with the merger, and led a breakaway of seven MKs to found the Independent Liberals. He was elected to the sixth Knesset but resigned from the Knesset on December 23, 1968, and retired from politics. His departure from the political stage was greeted by one newspaper as, "The end of the aristocracy" and in another by a cartoon captioned: "Another Channukah miracle!... An MK resigns because of age."

Rosen was a long-term friend of David Ben-Gurion who broke with Rosen after the Lavon affair, a botched Israeli sabotage operation in Egypt, in which Rosen sided with Lavon who had been (almost certainly falsely) accused of masterminding the mission, after which it is said Ben-Gurion refused to talk to Rosen again.

On his death in Pinhas Rosen received a state funeral.

Family

Rosen was married three times, first to Annie Lesser with whom he had two children, Hans and Dina, who with their mother settled in London in 1933 and whom Rosen visited regularly until the end of his life. In 1935 he married Hadassah Calvari with whom he had a daughter, Rivka, who died in 1942 aged seven, and Hadassah died of cancer in 1945. In 1950 he married Johana Rosenfeld who also predeceased him. Through his second and third wives he gained four step sons.

Awards

In 1973, Rosen was awarded the Israel Prize, in jurisprudence.

See also

• List of Israel Prize recipients

External links

• Pinchas Rosen on the Knesset website