ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 summarizes the life story of Haim Herman Cohn, a central figure in the shaping of Israel’s judicial system, who served as consultant to the state, as attorney general, and as a Supreme Court justice. One of the main chapters of his life was the process of abandonment of faith, a traumatic process entailing disappointment and grief. Cohn was born into a non-Zionist, strictly Orthodox household in Germany and was descended from a distinguished rabbinical family. He had planned to continue the traditions of his grandparents and to become a rabbi himself, but unusually strong intellectual capabilities pushed him outside of the religious world. The story of how Cohn fell out of faith may sound typical of many young men of his generation who abandoned the Orthodox lifestyle. Still, Cohn’s story is different. During his lifetime as a nonbeliever, one of the main missions he took upon himself was to adjust Jewish law to the reality of a liberal and modern state so that it could be incorporated in the Israeli statute book.
