Alan Dershowitz, Defense Lawyer, Civil Rights Fighter, Author

Nadene Goldfoot                                         

 Alan Morton Dershowitz was born September 1, 1938 in New York, New York. He is an American lawyer known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law.  He's also well known for his fight for civil rights and gets involved in cases involving civil liberties.  The film, Reversal of Fortune is a good example.  He has also taken up many Jewish causes and was the US lawyer for Anatol Shcharansky, prisoner in Russia.  His book CHUTZPAH, is his autobiography.   From 1964 to 2013 he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appointed the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law in 1993. Dershowitz is a regular media contributor, political commentator, and legal analyst.

He is such an outstanding lawyer that celebrities turn to him when  they have just cause.  As of 2009, he had won 13 of the 15 murder and attempted murder cases he handled as a criminal appellate lawyer. Dershowitz has represented such celebrity clients as Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst, Leona Helmsley, Julian Assange, and Jim Bakker.   He was a member of the "dream team" in the trial of former football player O. J. Simpson, who was accused of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

 He's the son of Harry Dershowitz b: 1909, and Claire  Dershowitz nee A Ringel. Harry was the son of Yekusiel Yehuda (Louis Alexander) Dershowitz and Eidel "Ida" Leah Dershowitz (born Maultasch) . Eidel was born on March 15 1888, in Galicia, Austria-Hungary. Galicia, what was formerly Eastern Galicia,  is solidly part of Ukraine now. Western Galicia might be part of Poland today.  Dershowitz is related to Los Angeles Conservative rabbi Zvi Dershowitz.

Brooklyn College that enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus in Brooklyn, NY.

                        Yale in New Haven, Connecticut

He's a graduate of Brooklyn College and Yale. Like many Jews of this era that I also belong to, our parents were Democrats and we also chose that political party. Dershowitz is also a Democrat.   Dershowitz campaigned against Trump during the 2016 election and has been critical of many of his actions, including his travel ban, his rescission of protections for "Dreamers", and his failure to single out white nationalists for their provocations during protests in Charlottesville. Comparing Trump unfavorably to Hillary Clinton in October 2016, Dershowitz said, "I think there's no comparison between who has engaged in more corruption and who is more likely to continue that if elected President of the United States."

                                             

           Dershowitz arguing on the Senate floor during the impeachment of Donald Trump, Alan's the author of many many books.  One is How Criminalization of Political Differences Endangers Democracy (2017). This work was part of Dershowitz’s frequent public inveighing against the investigation led by Robert Mueller into whether there had been collusion between Russia and the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.                                                                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                  

 In 2020 Dershowitz joined Trump’s defense team for the president’s impeachment trial in the Senate; Trump faced charges that arose from his dealings with Ukraine. During the trial, Dershowitz drew controversy over statements that seemed to give the president unprecedented power. Notably, he stated that “if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.” Trump was acquitted in February 2020.

Needless to say, Dershowitz himself is a Democrat, and doesn't let the political party of a client matter to him.  He is defending the law. There are even Democrats that, if it came to the bottom line, he would not vote for.   

On Netanyahu and his present day legal problems inside Israel, Dershowitz said that if the prosecutors wanted to charge Netanyahu with a crime there should be certain precedents and parameters set around what constitutes the exploits as actionable offenses.  Dershowitz added that if the prosecutors wanted to charge Netanyahu with a crime there should be certain precedents and parameters set around what constitutes the exploits as actionable offenses.  "Israel is the first country in modern history to ever put a political leader on trial for trying to get good media coverage or trying to eliminate negative media coverage," Dershowitz told i24. "If you want to try people on these offenses in cases 1000, 2000 and 4000, let the Knesset pass statutes."

                        Picture taken in 2009 

                                   

Dershowitz learned about law from his Jewish studies.  Dershowitz discussed an old Jewish religious law that did not permit observant Jews to travel on a ship on the Sabbath, which is consistent with what I understand of similar restrictions, such as not being able to drive or ride in a car on the Sabbath.  He didn't state when this law was modified, but if it had not been, Orthodox Jews such as my own grandfather's parents would not have been able to make the trip to the "Golden Medina", because the ship passage took more than seven days and therefore necessitated traveling on at least one Sabbath, if not more, he told Louis Gates on his program, "Who Do You Think You Are?"    

 He's a man who's received many awards.  Dershowitz was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 1979, and in 1983 received the William O. Douglas First Amendment Award from the Anti-Defamation League for his work on civil rights. In November 2007, he was awarded the Soviet Jewry Freedom Award by the Russian Jewish Community Foundation. In December 2011, he was awarded the Menachem Begin Award of Honor by the Menachem Begin Heritage Center at an event co-sponsored by NGO Monitor. He has been awarded honorary doctorates in law from Yeshiva University, the Hebrew Union College, Monmouth University, University of Haifa, Syracuse University, Fitchburg State College, Bar-Ilan University, and Brooklyn College. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of NGO Monitor. 

He belongs to a group that votes on the man of the year for peace, and this year has forwarded Zelinsky of Ukraine's name.  

Reference:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alan-Dershowitz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dershowitz

http://www.ancestraldiscoveries.com/2014/11/finding-your-roots-alan-dershowitz.html

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/trump-lawyer-alan-dershowitz-israel-should-be-deeply-ashamed-629194