פרשות חיים כהן: מאבקים ופולמוסים בין שופט העליון לגורמים דתיים בראשית שנות השישים

Incumbent judges, including Supreme Court justices, tend to exercise great restraint in their public statements. This article deals with a case that is probably the most extreme exception to this rule — a harsh statement made in 1963 by Justice Haim Cohn,later Supreme Court Vice President. The statement - in which he compared the determination of Jewishness according to Halakha with the Nuremberg Laws - sparked wide spread public controversy, heated Knesset debates, and the publication of a unique critique against Cohn. Furthermore, a complaint was filed with the police in an attempt to take legal action against Cohn, who arguably violated an article concerning harm to religious sentiments, which is very rarely applied in Israeli law.Justice Cohn was appointed Supreme Court judge in 1960 but, even though his views on state-and-religion have been well-known since his extended tour as Attorney General, no religious actor opposed his appointment. This changed when Cohn, in his rulings, started expressing views that riled rabbis and religious politicians. This article reviews three such judgments - prominent since they were handed down in the first half of the 1960s - and discusses Cohn's above mentioned public statement. Based on an extensive study of archived materials, this article shows that most Supreme Court justices resented this statement, as revealed in closed hearings; and examines the long-term impact that Cohn's unusual statement had on judges' conduct in the public sphere.