President Zalman Shazar paid trioute today to Felix Frankfurter, recalling the late former Supreme Court Justice’s work for the Zionist movement and his "considerable political aid" to Israel in "its most difficult hour."
President Shazar made the tribute at a farewell reception for Supreme Court Justice Yitzhak Cishan who has reached the compulsory Court retirement age of 70. Justice OIshan recalled that in 1948, when the Israel Supreme Court issued its first ruling, Justice Frankfurter asked for the complete text of the judgment and later praised it as an example of jurisprudence.
President Shazar cited the exchange of letters between Mr. Frankfurter and Emir Feisal in 1919, when Feisal was head of the Arab delegation at the Versailles Peace Conference. Feisal wrote that the Arabs "look with deepest sympathy on the Zienist movement" and "will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home."
Justice OIshan, the only survivor of the five jurists who constituted Israel’s first Supreme Court, will be succeeded as president by Justice Shimon Agranat.
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