ROSEN (Rosenblueth), PINḤAS (Felix)

ROSEN (Rosenblueth ), PINḤAS (Felix ) (1887–1978). Zionist and Israeli politician, member of the First to Sixth Knessets. Born in Berlin, Rosen studied Law at the Universities of Freiburg and Berlin, receiving his degree in 1908. In 1905 he became active in the Zionist students' movement Bund Juedischer Corporationen, which was later renamed Kartell Juedischer Verbindungen. In 1911 he was a cofounder of the Zionist youth movement *Blau-Weiss. Rosen served in the German army in World War i, and reached the rank of officer. In 1920–23 he served as chairman of the Zionist Organization of Germany. He emigrated to Palestine in 1923. In 1926 he became a member of the Zionist Executive in London, as head of the Organization Department, in which capacity he served until 1931, when he returned to Palestine. In Palestine he opened a private law practice and worked as a lawyer until 1948. In 1935 he was elected to the Tel Aviv Municipal Council in which he represented the immigrants from Central Europe, and continued to serve on the municipality until 1950. In 1940–48, he was chairman of the German and Austrian Immigrants' Association. Rosen was active in *General Zionists (a), and was close to *Weizmann in his approach to Zionism. In 1940–41, he was a member of a committee established by the League for Jewish-Arab Rapprochement and Cooperation, that prepared a report for the Jewish Agency on constitutional development in Palestine, better known as the Bentov Report (see Mordechai *Bentov). The Committee's report was based on the premise that Ereẓ Israel would become a binational state (see *Binationalism). In 1942 he was one of the founders of the Aliyah Ḥadashah Party. In the period of the struggle for statehood, he objected to Jewish terrorism, and supported the 1947 un partition plan. Rosen was elected to Asefat ha-Nivḥarim in 1944, and after the establishment of the state was one of the founders of the Progressive Party. He was elected to the First Knesset in 1949, and remained a member of the Knesset through the Sixth Knesset, on the Progressive list, then on the *Israel Liberal Party list, and finally on the *Independent Liberal Party list, when it broke off from the Liberal Party in 1965. Rosen served as minister of justice from 1948 to 1961, and was instrumental in organizing the judicial and legal system of Israel. He was chairman of the Board of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra until 1961, and published articles on Zionist themes in German, English, and Hebrew. A chair in constitutional law was established in Rosen's name at Tel Aviv University in 1972. In 1973 he was awarded the Israel Prize for law.

bibliography:

H.H. Cohen, Sefer Yovel le-Pinḥas Rosen (1967); R. Bondy, Felix: Pinḥas Rosen Uzmano (1990).

[Susan Hattis Rolef (2^nd ed.)]