Isaac Zamir

Isaac Zamir was born in 1931 in Warsaw

Zamir was born in Warsaw on April 15, 1931, under the name Jerzy Nachtigal. He came to the Land of Israel with his parents, Hanna and Haim Yehiel Nachtigal, and the family lived in Tel Aviv. He studied at the Ahad Ha'am school and the Herzliya Gymnasium.

He served in Air Force intelligence and wrote for the Air Force journal. He studied economics and political science, then moved to law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He interned with Justice Yoel Zussman at the Supreme Court, was licensed as a lawyer in 1959 and earned a doctorate from the University of London.

Zamir taught public law at the Hebrew University and was dean of its law faculty from 1975 to 1978. In 1970 he set up a quit-smoking group with the Health Ministry and later founded an anti-smoking association. As Attorney General from 1978 to 1986, he pressed for an inquiry into the security service in the Kav 300 affair, and Prime Minister Shimon Peres removed him from office.

He headed the Press Council from 1988 to 1991. He was the first dean of the University of Haifa law faculty from 1991 to 1994, then a Supreme Court Justice from 1994 to 2001. From 2003 to 2007 he led a committee drafting ethics rules for Knesset members.