Former minister, legal giant Amnon Rubinstein passes away at 92

Amnon Rubinstein, a former lawmaker and Israel Prize recipient who played a key role in shaping Israel’s legal and political landscape, died today at the age of 92.

Rubinstein was born in 1931 to Polish immigrant parents in Tel Aviv, and despite Israel not having a formal constitution, he is considered to be the closest thing the country has to a constitutional founding father. He authored two of Israel’s rights-granting Basic Laws — Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty and Basic Law: Freedom of Vocation.

Rubinstein held several ministerial portfolios during his long political career, but most notably held office as communications minister between 1984 and 1987, under the leadership of prime ministers Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir, and as education, culture and sports minister under the leadership of Yitzhak Rabin and Peres between 1994 and 1996.