For eight years, Rosa Ginzberg had battled the authorities of British Mandatory Palestine for the right to sit for the bar examination and to practice law in pre-state Israel. On February 15, 1930 the High Court of Justice delivered its ruling – the justices chose realism over formalism, focusing on the issues of the status and the rights of women, which they projected on to a seemingly formal question: Were women included in the definition of “persons”? Justice Khayat concluded the ruling, writing: “There is nothing that restricts the profession to men. Moreover, the current situation in the country does not prevent women from serving as lawyers.” Read more.
