The Annual Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Lecture
Spring 2009: Ruth Gavison
On Monday, March 2nd, 2009, the Annual Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Lecture was presented by Ruth Gavison, Haim H. Cohn Professor of Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Law Faculty and Founding President of The Metzilah Center for Zionist, Jewish, Liberal and Humanist Thought, at 6:00 PM in The Greenberg Lounge located in Vanderbilt Hall, NYU School of Law. The lecture was entitled " Jews and Israelis: Issues of Membership in the Jewish Religion, Jewish People, Jewish State." Professor Gavison was introduced by H.E. Professor Gabriela Shalev, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations. Following the lecture, there was a short cocktail reception.
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Professor Ruth Gavison |
H.E. Professor Gabriela Shalev |
Professor J.H.H. Weiler |
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Watch the Video of the Lecture
Ruth Gavison Biographical Information
Ruth Gavison is Haim H. Cohn Professor of Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Law Faculty and Founding President of The Metzilah Center for Zionist, Jewish, Liberal and Humanist Thought. Her areas of research include Ethnic Conflict, the Protection of Minorities, Human Rights, Political Theory, The role of courts, comparative constitutionalism, Religion and Politics, and Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State.
A founding member of the Israeli Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) since 1974, she served for many years as its Chairperson, and was its President in the years 1996-1999. She was a member of the International Commission of Jurists 1998- 2008 and served on the presidium of Moetzet Yahad: a national body working under the auspices of the President of Israel on consensus-building between religious and secular Jews in Israel. In the years 1999-2001 she was involved in an intensive dialogue with Rabbi Yaacov Medan, which generated a draft of a covenant on state and religion issues among Jews in Israel (2003). The covenant won the Avihai prize for 2000. In May 2002 she won (with Rav Medan) the Toleration Award of The Movement of Toleration, and in September 2002 she won the Jerusalem Toleration Prize. In 2003 she won the Emet Prize for Law and Political Science. From September 2006 to January 2008 she served as a member of the Winograd Commission investigating the 2nd Lebanon War.
Professor Gavison established The Metzilah Center as Founding President in 2005.
