Lawיצחק אולשן

Isaac Olshan

Isaac Olshan was an Israeli jurist who served as the second President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1954 to 1965.

1895 to 1983Second President of the Supreme CourtThe Olshan-Dori commissionEthics rules for judges

Born: 19 February 1895, Kaunas
Died: 5 February 1983, Jerusalem
Occupation: judge, jurist
Education: University of London

Isaac Olshan was born in 1895 in Kaunas

Olshan was born in 1895 in Kaunas, then in the Russian Empire. He moved to Ottoman Palestine in 1912 and finished the Herzliya Gymnasium.

He served in the Jewish Legion from 1918 to 1921 and then joined the Haganah. In 1923 he went to London to study at the University of London. He completed a law degree in 1927 and returned to qualify as a lawyer.

As a lawyer in Jerusalem, he worked in the office of attorney Eliash. He defended Jews charged after the riots of that period, and all of them were acquitted. He also appeared in public cases on immigration limits, land purchases and the Haganah.

In 1948 he was one of the first 5 justices of the new Supreme Court. In 1954 he became its President and set work rules and ethics for judges. He sat on the Olshan-Dori commission on the Lavon affair and ruled in the Kastner appeal.

He retired in 1965 and was succeeded by Shimon Agranat. That year he became head of the Press Council. His only son died in 1973, and Olshan died in 1983.