Dorit Beinisch

Her father, Aharon Werba, a civil servant, immigrated to Palestine from Poland in 1933.

Her mother, Chava, was a kindergarten teacher in Tel Aviv.

Beinisch served in the Israeli Defense Forces, where she reached the rank of lieutenant.

Dorit Beinisch (דורית ביניש; born February 28, 1942) is a retired Israeli jurist.

She was the 9th president of the Supreme Court of Israel.

In 1964, she married Yeheskell Beinisch, a Jerusalem lawyer.

They have two daughters and five grandchildren.

She studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, completing her Bachelor of Laws degree (LL.B.) in 1967.

Two years later she completed her Master of Laws (LL.M.) summa cum laude, at the same university, while apprenticing in the Justice Ministry.

Beinisch joined the Ministry of Justice in 1967, doing her legal internship in the legislation department.

She served in the Ministry of Justice for 28 years, holding senior positions to which women in Israel had never been appointed before.

Between 1967 and 1969, Beinisch served as Assistant in the Jerusalem District Attorney's Office until she completed her master's degree, moving up in 1970 to become Senior Assistant to the State Attorney.

From 1976 to 1982, she served as the Director of the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law in the State Attorney's Office.

She represented the state before the Supreme Court in constitutional and administrative cases.

For example, in the late 1980s, she headed the struggle in the Supreme Court that led to the banning of the far right-wing Kach party from the Knesset.

She refused to represent Yitzhak Rabin's government in the High Court when a petition was filed against its decision to deport 415 Hamas members to Lebanon.

From 1982 through 1988 she served as the Deputy State Attorney.

She played an instrumental role in prosecuting some of the state's most difficult cases.

She collected evidence for the Kahan commission which investigated the Sabra and Shatila massacre.

During the prosecution of the Gush Emunim Underground she received threats to her life.

Beinisch fought for her professional and legal views on controversial issues, such as the Kav 300 affair in 1984.

Beinisch served as the State Attorney of Israel from 1989 to 1995, the first woman in Israel to hold this position.

In this position, she directed all government litigation in all levels of courts, took part in forming the State's policy in criminal, constitutional and civil fields, and was responsible for all the professional aspects of legal representation of the state of Israel in the courts.

She supervised the lengthy investigation, trial and eventual conviction of then Shas Party chairman and former interior minister Aryeh Deri.

She represented the state before the Supreme Court in significant constitutional, administrative and criminal law cases.

Appointed on September 14, 2006, after the retirement of Aharon Barak, she served in this position until February 28, 2012.

She was the first woman to serve as president of the Israeli Supreme Court.

Dorit Werba was born in Tel Aviv.

Beinisch was awarded honorary Doctor of Philosophy degrees by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in June 2010, and Ben-Gurion University in May 2012, as well as an Honorary Fellowship by The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.

On November 12, 2012, she was awarded Doctor of Philosophy "honoris causa" degree from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Beinisch was awarded "Doctor of Humane Letters-Honoris Causa"by The "Hebrew Union College"Jerusalem, on November 14th,2012.

Dorit Beinisch is a member as an Officer at The French "National Order of the Legion of Honour" since December 17, 2012.

On December 30, 2012, Beinisch was awarded as a knight of The Movement for Quality Government in Israel.

From 2012–2014, she taught a seminar on national security judging at the Center on Law and Security (CLS) with Samuel Rascoff and Andrew Weissmann at NYU Law as a distinguished global fellow and a senior fellow.

Beinisch is a critic of the Israeli government’s judicial reform initiative, citing that it threatens the independence of the judiciary.

On May 8, 2013, Beinisch was awarded "Honorary Citizen of Jerusalem".

On June 13, she was awarded "Honorary Fellowship" by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Academic College.

Beinisch was nominated in May 2013 as The Chancellor of the Open University of Israel and chairwoman of its Council.

In March 2023, Beinisch was named as “honorary citizen of Tel Aviv -Yaffo”.

In May 2015 Beinisch received an honorary award from The Holon Technological Institute.