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IRF Mourns Passing of Prof. Ruth Gavison, zt"l

August 16, 2020

The International Rabbinic Fellowship expresses its sadness on the passing of Prof. Ruth Gavison, one of Israel's leading jurists and legal minds.

Prof. Gavison was a thoughtful, passionate legal scholar, whose research focused on civil rights, democracy and constitutional law. She was a recipient of the Israel Prize whose committee wrote that Prof. Gavison "deals deeply and courageously with shaping the identity of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."


A committed Zionist as well as an advocate for human rights, she oppossed excessive judicial activism looking to the Knesset to take responsibility for legislating and working through challenging issues.


She tirelessly worked to bridge some of the schisms in Israeli society most famously between religious and secular Jews in drafting together with Rabbi Yaacov Medan a new mutually agreed compact on issues of religion and state reflecting new realities and a minimum of religious coercion. This covenant represents the spirit of compromise and mutual respect between various sectors of the Jewish people that the IRF supports and sees as the direction to follow in the future to ensure a thriving and cohesive society in Israel.


For those who would like to learn more about her thought and work see:




May her family be comforted by the Almighty among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

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