14 Facts About Pinchas Rosen

Pinchas Rosen was leader of the Independent Liberals and three times turned down invitations to be Israel's president.

Pinchas Rosen was brought up in Messingwerk Finow and attended the Wilhelms Gymnasium in Eberswalde from 1892 to 1904.

Pinchas Rosen served in the Imperial German Army in World War I and was wounded in 1915 while on the Eastern Front.

Always active in Zionist circles, working as chief of staff to Chaim Weizmann, Rosen was Chairman of the Zionist Federation of Germany from 1920 to 1923, and eventually migrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1926 where he practiced as a lawyer and helped create the Central European Immigrants Association.

Pinchas Rosen was a pivotal figure in the Israeli Philharmonic orchestra.

Pinchas Rosen was married three times, first to Annie Lesser with whom he had two children, Hans and Dina, who with their mother settled in London in 1933 and whom Pinchas Rosen visited regularly until the end of his life.

In 1942 Pinchas Rosen founded the New Aliyah Party, and was elected to the Assembly of Representatives on its list in 1944.

Pinchas Rosen became the country's first Minister of Justice, an office to which he brought a strong reputation for intellect and probity.

Pinchas Rosen retained his seat and Ministerial position in the 1951,1955 and 1959 elections and so was Justice Minister in eight of Israel's first nine governments.

The new party won the third largest number of seats in the 1961 elections but was not invited into the coalition, and Pinchas Rosen lost his ministerial position.

Pinchas Rosen was unhappy with the merger, and led a breakaway of seven MKs to found the Independent Liberals.

Pinchas Rosen was elected to the sixth Knesset but resigned from the Knesset on December 23,1968, and retired from politics.

Pinchas Rosen was a long-term ally of David Ben-Gurion although their relationship was sometimes strained, not least after the Lavon affair, a botched Israeli sabotage operation in Egypt, in which Pinchas Rosen sided with Lavon who had been accused of masterminding the mission, while Ben-Gurion wanted the embarrassing affair quietly forgotten.

In 1973, Pinchas Rosen was awarded the Israel Prize, in jurisprudence.