Ruth Gavison facts for kids

Ruth Gavison

Ruth Gavison (Hebrew: רות גביזון) was an important Israeli expert on human rights. She was a law professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and won the prestigious Israel Prize. She was born in Jerusalem on March 28, 1945, and passed away there on August 15, 2020.

About Ruth Gavison

Ruth Gavison was born in Jerusalem in 1945. Her family were Sephardic Jews, meaning their ancestors came from places like Spain and Portugal. Her father's family came from Morocco to Jerusalem in the 1800s. Her mother's family was from Greece. Ruth grew up in Haifa.

She studied law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and finished in 1969. The next year, she also earned a degree in Philosophy and Economics. She continued her studies, getting more advanced degrees in law and legal philosophy from the Hebrew University and the University of Oxford in England. She also worked for a judge on Israel's highest court and became a lawyer in Israel in 1971.

Her Work as a Professor

As a professor, Ruth Gavison studied many important topics. She looked at how different groups of people can live together peacefully, how to protect the rights of smaller groups, and general human rights. She also researched how politics, law, and religion connect, and what it means for Israel to be both a Jewish and democratic state. She was a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, which is a group of top scientists and scholars.

Her Time in Court

In 2005, Ruth Gavison was considered for a job as a judge on Israel's highest court, the Supreme Court of Israel. However, she wasn't chosen for the position. Some reports said that other judges on the court didn't agree with her ideas, which might have been why she wasn't picked.

What She Wrote

Ruth Gavison wrote many important articles and books. She wrote about privacy in a well-known law magazine called the Yale Law Journal. She also helped create a book about the ideas of another famous legal thinker, H.L.A. Hart.

One of her most famous works was the Gavison-Medan Covenant. She wrote this with Rabbi Yaaqov Medan. It was a plan to help religious and non-religious Israelis live together peacefully and understand each other better.

Working for Civil Rights

Ruth Gavison was a very active person who worked hard for civil rights. She helped start the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). She was the leader of this group for many years and served as its president from 1996 to 1999.

From 1998 to 2008, she was also a member of the International Commission of Jurists, which is a global group of legal experts who work to promote human rights and the rule of law. In 2005, she started a center called Metzilah. This center focused on Zionist, Jewish, liberal, and humanistic ideas, and she was its first president.

Important Committees

Ruth Gavison was part of many important public committees in Israel. These committees helped shape laws and policies. For example:

• In 1976, she was on the Kahan Committee on Privacy, which helped create Israel's privacy law.
• She was also part of a committee that looked at how to protect information in government databases.
• From 1987 to 1990, she was on a committee that discussed how religious and non-religious people in Israel could get along.
• Later, she was a member of the Winograd Commission (2006–2008), which investigated the 2006 Lebanon War.
• From 2013 to 2015, she worked on a report about how Israel's identity as a Jewish and democratic state could be written into its laws.

Awards and Honors

Ruth Gavison received many awards for her important work:

• In 1997, she won the Zeltner Prize for legal research.
• In 1998, she received the Bar Association Prize.
• In 2001, she won the Avi Chai Prize with Rabbi Yaakov Medan for helping bring Israeli society together.
• In 2002, she received the Jerusalem Prize for tolerance.
• In 2003, she was awarded the EMET Prize, which is a very high honor in Israel.
• She also received honorary doctorates (special degrees) from several universities, including the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, Bar-Ilan University, and the Open University in Israel.
• In 2011, she received the Israel Prize for her legal research, which is one of the highest honors in Israel.
• In 2013, she received the Solomon Bublick Award from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

See also

• List of Israel Prize recipients