Heshin, Shneur Zalman
HESHIN, SHNEUR ZALMAN
HESHIN, SHNEUR ZALMAN (1903–1959), Israel jurist and Supreme Court justice. Heshin, who was born in Jerusalem, studied law in the United States. In 1937 he was appointed a magistrate in Tel Aviv and from 1944 to 1948 served as district court judge there. He became a justice of the Supreme Court of Israel in 1948, and from 1954 was its permanent deputy president. He published several books on his legal experiences, including one on child adoption, Yaldei Immuẓim (1956), and Tears and Laughter in an Israel Courtroom (1959). A brilliant jurist with a thorough knowledge of several legal systems, his judgments were an important contribution in Israel law in the first years of the state's existence.
[Benjamin Jaffe]
His son mishael cheshin (1936–), also a Supreme Court justice, was born in Beirut and graduated magna cum laude from the Hebrew University Law Faculty. In 1962, he received a doctorate in law from the Hebrew University. From 1957 through the mid-1980s, he was a lecturer at the Hebrew University Law School. During 1962–78, he was also employed by the Ministry of Justice, first as deputy state attorney and from 1972 as deputy attorney general. From 1978 to 1991 he engaged in private law practice in Jerusalem and in 1992 he was named to the Israel Supreme Court, becoming deputy president in 2005 and retiring in 2006. Known as an independent-minded defender of civil liberties, Cheshin was a mainstay of Aharon *Barak's activist court.
[Leon Fine (2nd ed.)]