German Bar Assn. Forces Jewish Lawyer to Appear on Sabbath

Ruling that “the Sabbath is not a high Jewish holyday,” the Honor Court of the Frankfurt Bar Association has compelled the appearance before it, on a Saturday, of Dr. Joseph Klibansky, stormy petrel of the German bar and an outstanding trial attorney.

Frankfurt-born Klibansky, whose father headed a local orthodox boarding school for boys, is probably the sole strictly orthodox Jewish lawyer now practicing in Germany. His letterheads bear the conspicuous notation that his office is closed on the Sabbath and on all Jewish holy days. In 1952 he brought suit before the Supreme Constitutional Court when a Munich judge set the opening of the Auerbach trial, in which he served as principal defense counsel, for the seventh day of Passover. That suit has not yet come up on the Court’s calendar.

Dr. Klibansky asked for a postponement to some other week day as soon as he received a summons to appear before the Frankfurt Honor Court on the Sabbath. This request was denied by Court President Dr. Jakob Flesch, a man of Jewish stock who flaunts his status as an active lay leader of the Lutheran Church and who, in the back-pay suit brought against the IG-Farben chemical trust by its former Auschwitz slave laborer Norbert Wollheim, represented IG-Farben. A Jewish lawyer cannot expect “special treatment.” Dr. Flesch argued.

Dr. Klibansky thereupon submitted an affidavit from a Frankfurt rabbi that Jewish law would not authorize his participation in the Honor Court proceedings. He further filed a formal constitutional complaint with the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. Due to the absence of a quorum, the latter was unable to take up the matter in time, however. The Bar Association insisted upon going through with its hearing, but in the end failed to arrive at a verdict.