Aviad Hacohen

Aviad Hacohen

Aviad Hacohen (1962 -) is an Israeli attorney and professor of law.

Biography

Professor Aviad Hacohen is the son of Rabbi Menachem Hacohen, who was a Labor party member of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset), and Devora Hacohen, a historian at Bar-Ilan University. Hacohen studied at Netiv Meir yeshiva high school and afterwards at Yeshivat Har Etzion and Yeshivat HaKotel. He served in the Israel Defense Forces in a hesder program combining yeshiva studies with army service. He received his BA in law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1989. While engaged in his studies he also served as a research assistant in the Institute for Jewish Law of the law school. He did his articles for the Deputy Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court, Professor Menachem Elon, and for Dr. Mishael Cheshin, who later served as Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. In 1991, Hacohen began to teach as an assistant in the law school of the Hebrew University while studying for an MA in law, which he received cum laude in 1993. In 1995 he began to teach Jewish law and communications law at Bar Ilan University. In 1996, he was appointed Director of the Center for the Instruction and Study of Jewish Law at the Sha'arei Mishpat Academic Center, where he also served as a lecturer. He received his PhD in law magna cum laude from the law school of the Hebrew University in 2003.

Legal career

While working as a lecturer in law, Hacohen participated in research institutes and forums, including the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Mosaica, the Institute for the Study of Religion, Society and State which he founded and heads. He has written hundreds of articles which have been published in academic and research journals and in publications for the general public, including articles on the weekly Torah portion published by the Ministry of Justice. Since 2001, he has written a weekly column on the Torah portion for “Shabbaton” which is distributed in tens of thousands of copies and appears on the internet as well. In 1997, he served as a member of the editorial board for the official publication of Supreme Court decisions and since 2006 he has served as its editor-in-chief. He wrote the entries regarding human rights in the new edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica, including the entries on freedom of expression, freedom of movement and freedom of occupation. In 2011, he wrote the mission statement of the National Library that was presented at a festive ceremony in the presence of the President of the State of Israel, the Prime Minister and senior government officials.

Hacohen is a member of the editorial boards of the “Jewish Law Yearbook” (published by the Institute for Jewish Law of the law school of Hebrew University); “Medicine and Law”, “Machanaim” , “Masehkhet”, “Sha’arei Mishpat”, “Halishka – The Magazine of the Bar Association in Jerusalem”, “Alon Shvut for the Graduates of Yeshivat Har Etzion” and others.

Hacohen serves as the legal commentator for the newspaper “Israel Today”.[1] His articles have appeared in “Haaretz”, “Yediot Acharonot”, Maariv”, “Makor Rishon”, “Nekudah”, “Hatzofeh”, “The Jerusalem Post” and others.

Since 1994, Hacohen has served as the general counsel for the Israel Festival and of the movement “Hakol Hinukh” [“Everything is Education”]. He is an active member of the Israel Bar Associationthe Jerusalem Committee of the Bar Association, the disciplinary tribunal of the Bar Association and various public commissions. He served as an advisor to the Codification Commission [for the codification of the civil laws] and the Shoshani Commission that dealt with budgeting for educational institutions. He is director and chairman of the Logistics Committee of the Birthright Program. He is a member of the Center for Women's Justice Israel, the Yeshivat Har Etzion Foundation and the Takana Forum that addresses sexual harassment in the religious community.

In 2007 and 2011 Hacohen’s name was on the list of candidates submitted to the Commission for the Appointment of Judges to the Supreme Court.

In 2011, Hacohen was appointed general counsel to Mifal HaPayis, the state lottery.

Notable cases

In 2010-2011 represented Rachel Azaria, a member of the Jerusalem City Council in two petitions that sought to prevent gender segregation in the Mea Shearim neighborhood.

In 2008, Hacohen was among the few members (three out of 30) on the Central Elections Committee for the 18th Knesset who objected to the disqualification of the Arab lists to participate in the elections, a position that was backed-up later in a Supreme Court decision to overrule the disqualification.

Views and opinions

Hacohen is identified with the philosophy of Modern Orthodoxy, including the integration of Torah and academic pursuits. He expresses liberal economic positions and is among the founders of the organization Bema’aglei Tzedek. As part of his activity in the organization he has taken a firm stand in favor of outright warfare against the trade in women, and has called for working to increase public awareness of people with disabilities and insuring that their special needs are met, and closing the economic gaps in Israeli society. He has also expressed strong criticism of what he terms the negligence of the religious community in dealing with cases of sexual assault and refusal by men to give divorces to their wives.

Published works

His book “The Tears of the Oppressed,” an examination of the agunah problem, was published in the United States in 2004. In this work Hacohen, relying on halakhic sources, proposes new approaches for solving the problem of women unable to obtain a divorce. In 2011, his book “Parshiyot v’Mishpatim.” a collection of some of his articles, including chapters on human rights, criminal law and civil law and their relation to Jewish law, was published.

References

  1. ↑ Israel HaYom

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, December 07, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.