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Pinhas Rosen (Felix Rosenblueth) was born in Berlin, in 1887, to a family rooted in Jewish tradition, Indeed, he maintained a positive attitude towards Jewish tradition throughout his life.
In his youth, he had already become involved in Jewish affairs, as one of the founding members of the youth movement "Blue White". In 1920 he was elected president of the Zionist Movement in Germany.
During the First World War, he served as a commissioned officer in the German army. From 1923 to 1925 he worked in Eretz Israel then Palestine) but was later called to London to direct the Organisation Department of the Zionist Executive (1926-1931) headed by its President Chaim Weizmann.
In 1931 he settled in Eretz Israel, where he opened a law practice, but at the same time he became politically involved. He was one of the founders of the Association of Immigrants from Germany, a member of the Tel Aviv Town Council and a founding father of the "Progressive Party", over which he presided until 1961.
Pinhas Rosen was a member of the Provisional Government, which, on May 14th 1948, proclaimed the creation of the State of Israel, and until 1961 he served in almost every Israel Government in the capacity of Minister of Justice, laying the foundation for the existing legal system.
His work in the judicial domain may be considered the crowning achievement of his public activities. It was his aim to create an independent, high level legal system, free of outside influences, as well as to establish the prosecutor's authority and to set up other divisions in the Ministry of Justice. He also initiated multifarious legislation which helped to shape the State of Israel into a democratic, constitutional country.
After the merger of the progressive Party with the General Zionists, he became president of the unified party and after the establishment of the Independent Liberal Party, he became its president from 1965 until the end of his life. Pinhas Rosen was a humanitarian and an outstanding man of culture.
He died in 1978.
