Ha-Mesoret Ha-Mishpatit ve-Ha-Zionit shel Louis D. Brandeis [The Legal and Zionist Tradition of Louis D. Brandeis, in Hebrew ] (review)

This eighty-six page book, published on the sixtieth anniversary of the death of Justice Louis Brandeis, successfully covers the three dimensions of this great man—the person, the Jew and the jurist—and provides a complete picture of a person who was, to use Ben Gurion's words, "one of the most important sons of the Jewish nation."¹ Indeed, when you realize that Brandeis aimed to demonstrate that Zionists were complete and better Americans, you will understand how he came to be a prophet for American Zionism. Brandeis had a particular brand of magic, as much the product of his personality as of his ideas, which turned so many of his audiences into converts and made it possible for American Jews to adopt Zionism without denying their loyalty to the United States. He asked, "What are the American ideals? They are the development of the individual for his own and the common good; the development of the individual through liberty, and the attainment of the common good through democracy and social justice."²

Brandeis was impressed by the Jewish national character and the historical contribution made by the Jews to the society in which they lived. "Jews gave to the world its three greatest religions, reverence for law, and the highest conceptions of morality . . . Our teaching of brotherhood and righteousness has, under the name of democracy and social justice, become the twentieth century striving of America and of western Europe."³ In this sense, Zionism was no more than an extension of the citizen's obligation to work for the public welfare, and the goals of Zionism were so similar to those of the United States that, by committing oneself to Zionism, one would become a better American.

Edited methodically, the book consists of three parts, each written by an experienced scholar: "The Universal Foundations of American National Consciousness" by the late Yehoshua Arieli, "The Legal Heritage of Louis Brandeis" by Stephen Goldstein, and "Louis Brandeis and American Zionism" by. Allon Gal who is also the editor of the book.

Arieli analyzes the American ethos by focusing on two basic foundations: the emergence of the American Republic from a democratic revolution based on natural rights; and the aspiration to unite the various political, cultural, religious, and ethnic elements of America's population by establishing one pluralistic nation. Arieli rightly argues that the basic consensus with regard to democracy and pluralism not only strengthened American nationalism (often defined as "Americanism"), by eliminating crises of national identity,⁴ it also enabled the development and success of American Zionism by following a different route from that of European Zionism.

Justice Louis Brandeis was the undisputed champion of American Zionism. His legal heritage is no less impressive. Brandeis the jurist is the subject of Goldstein's short, but enlightening, chapter. When Brandeis joined the Supreme Court in 1916, he brought with him his rich experience and thoughts on sociological jurisprudence, together with a profound involvement in social reform. It may have been his belief in the possible—Brandeis insisted that people and their actions could make a difference—that made him a prophet acceptable both to his young colleagues and to the reformist New Freedom and New Deal administrations. He shared similar views with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and the two voted together far more often than not; indeed, the phrase "Holmes and Brandeis dissenting" quickly became a feature of Court decisions. Although Brandeis's roots were in part European, while Holmes was the quintessential Boston Brahmin, Brandeis's pragmatism was much closer to the mainstream of American political thought.

In order to analyze Brandeis's contribution to the Court, Goldstein describes in detail his credo as reflected in his early career as an attorney, when he often undertook the pro bono defense of trade unions...