Micha Lindenstrauss facts for kids
Micha Lindenstrauss (Hebrew: מיכה לינדנשטראוס) was an important Israeli judge and a special public official called the State Comptroller. He held this role from 2005 to 2012. He was born on June 28, 1937, and passed away on May 2, 2019.
Early Life and Family
Micha Lindenstrauss was born in Berlin, Germany. When he was just two years old, his family moved to Mandatory Palestine, which is now Israel. This happened right before World War II began.
He later studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Micha Lindenstrauss was married and had three daughters. One of his daughters also became a judge, following in his footsteps. He also had relatives who were famous mathematicians, including his cousin Joram Lindenstrauss and a distant relative, Elon Lindenstrauss, who won a very important award called the Fields Medal.
His Career as a Judge
Micha Lindenstrauss began his career in the Israel Defense Forces. There, he worked as a military prosecutor, which is like a lawyer who brings cases for the army. Later, he became a judge in a military court.
In 1972, he started working as a judge in regular courts. First, he was a Traffic Court judge, dealing with cases about driving. After that, he became a judge in the Lower District Court in Haifa. A District Court handles many different types of legal cases.
By 1999, he was chosen to be the president of the Haifa District Court. This meant he was the main judge leading that court. He also became the head of the Judges Delegation of Israel, which is a group representing judges in the country.
Becoming the State Comptroller
After the previous State Comptroller, Eliezer Goldberg, retired, Micha Lindenstrauss was chosen for this important job. The Knesset, which is Israel's parliament, voted for him to become the new State Comptroller. He started this role in July 2005.
The State Comptroller's job is to check how the government and public organizations spend money and how well they do their work. It's like being a watchdog to make sure everything is fair and correct.
In 2011, Micha Lindenstrauss announced that his office would look into how Benjamin Netanyahu, who was then the Prime Minister, paid for some of his travel. This investigation focused on whether private business people had paid for his trips.
