most distinguished defenders of individual rights,” “the best-known criminal lawyer in the world,” “the top lawyer of last resort,”

Alan Dershowitz

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# Detailed Biography

Professor Alan M. Dershowitz is Brooklyn native who has been called “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer” and one of its “most distinguished defenders of individual rights,” “the best-known criminal lawyer in the world,” “the top lawyer of last resort,” “America’s most public Jewish defender” and “Israel’s single most visible defender – the Jewish state’s lead attorney in the court of public opinion.” He is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Dershowitz, a graduate of Brooklyn College and Yale Law School, joined the Harvard Law School faculty at age 25 after clerking for Judge David Bazelon and Justice Arthur Goldberg.

He has also published more than 100 articles in magazines and journals such as The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post. The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Nation, Commentary, Saturday Review, The Harvard Law Review and the Yale Law Journal, and more than 300 of his articles have appeared in syndication in 50 national daily newspapers. Professor Dershowitz is the author of 27 fiction and non-fiction works with a worldwide audience. His most recent titles include Rights From Wrong, The Case For Israel, The Case For Peace, Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence and Preemption: A Knife that Cuts Both Ways, Finding Jefferson – A Lost Letter, A Remarkable Discovery, and The First Amendment In An Age of Terrorism.

In addition to his numerous law review articles and books about criminal and constitutional law, he has written, taught and lectured about history, philosophy, psychology, literature, mathematics, theology, music, sports – and even delicatessens.

In 1983, the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith presented him with the William O. Douglas First Amendment Award for his "compassionate eloquent leadership and persistent advocacy in the struggle for civil and human rights." In presenting the award, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel said: "If there had been a few people like Alan Dershowitz during the 1930s and 1940s, the history of European Jewry might have been different." Professor Dershowitz has been awarded the honorary doctor of laws degree by Yeshiva University, the Hebrew Union College, Brooklyn College, Syracuse University and Haifa University. The New York Criminal Bar Association honored him for his "outstanding contribution as a scholar and dedicated defender of human rights."


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© Alan M. Dershowitz 2006–2008. All rights reserved. | About the Site

And I ask, "Why don't you speak up?"

Alan Dershowitz

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# Archive

Voices of Antisemitism



Alan Dershowitz is concerned over what he views as a rising tide of antisemitic speech on American college campuses.



ALAN DERSHOWITZ:


I sure hope that [Jean-Paul] Sartre was not right that the antisemite makes the Jew. When I was growing up, antisemitism determined where we could work, where we could live, where we could go to school, who we could socialize with. None of that's true today. Antisemitism, its not a central phenomenon in the life of Americans. Whereas, of course, assimilation and other ways of Judaism being endangered from within are increasing problems. I think what we need is positive Judaism. We need young Jews to see the strengths, the positive aspects of Judaism, not only as a religion but as a culture, a civilization, as part of one's way of life. Even though antisemitism is not a function of their own lives.

DANIEL GREENE:


Author, professor, and civil liberties attorney Alan Dershowitz is concerned over what he views as a rising tide of antisemitic speech on American college campuses. Dershowitz calls upon his peers to condemn those who would use such rhetoric to justify hatred of Jews.

Welcome to Voices on Antisemitism, a free podcast series of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I'm Daniel Greene. Every other week, we invite a guest to reflect about the many ways that antisemitism and hatred influence our world today. Here's Harvard Law School professor, Alan Dershowitz.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ:


I never wanted to write the book The Case for Israel. I wanted to write The Case for Peace, which I eventually did. I had to write The Case for Israel, even though nobody has to write The Case for Canada, or The Case for New Zealand, or The Case for France or [The Case for] England, because the case against Israel was being so prominently featured on American university campuses, and it was based on such ignorance that I had to get the liberal case for Israel out there based on facts. And when I did that it was seen immediately as an enormous threat to the hard left presence on campuses.

If you look at some of the cartoons that are being used against Israel, against Israeli leaders and supporters of Israel, most recently against me, the propaganda effort has changed. And instead of a conversation about Israel and the Palestinians, there is an attempt to dehumanize Israel and to demonize Israel. And Holocaust denial is increasing. Holocaust minimization is increasing. Holocaust comparativization is increasing. And education is critically important. When a Holocaust denier speaks on a college or university campus, I see that as an educational moment, as an opportunity to educate students, and instead of trying to ban the speaker, respond and educate.

It's good to be critical of Israeli policies, just like it's good to be critical of American policies. I'm no less a patriot because I'm critical of the Iraq war or other American policies. And I'm no less a Zionist because I'm critical of many Israeli policies. Even criticism of Zionism is perfectly acceptable intellectually. It's the double standard, the hyper-criticism, the unwillingness to find anything decent in Israel, that begins to blur the lines between criticism of Israel the state, and criticism of Israel, the Jew among the states.

When I speak on college campuses, and I speak on many, I get calls the next day always, almost in a whispered voice: "Thank you for speaking up."

And I ask, "Why don't you speak up?"

"Well, you know, we don't want to be unpopular with students. We don't want to get into controversial areas. We don't want to be politically incorrect."

It's appalling how irresponsible most American academics have been in the face of this well-organized campaign to turn our current generation of college students and our future leaders against Israel and against Jewish interests and values. We have the responsibility to stop it. We have the resources to stop it. We have the ability to stop it. And if we fail to respond to hate speech, it's our fault.

DANIEL GREENE:


Voices on Antisemitism is a free podcast series of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Join us every other week to hear a new perspective on the continuing threat of antisemitism in our world today. To contribute your thoughts to our series, please call 888-70USHMM, or visit our Web site at www.ushmm.org. At that site, you can also listen to Voices on Genocide Prevention, a podcast series on contemporary genocide.
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© Alan M. Dershowitz 2006–2008. All rights reserved. | About the Site

Email: dersh@law.harvard.edu

Harvard Law School
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Alan M. Dershowitz
[faculty photo]

Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law
Office: Hauser 520
Assistant: Sarah Neely 617/496-2020
Phone: (617) 495-4617
Fax: (617) 495-7855
Email: dersh@law.harvard.edu
Web Page: www.alandershowitz.com

Research Interests

* Criminal Law
* Rights

Subject Areas for Supervising Written Work

* Civil Liberties
* Criminal Law
* Jewish Law

Subject Areas for Accepting Press Inquiries

* Litigation/Trials/Criminal Process
* Rights
* Speech

Education

* Brooklyn College A.B. 1959
* Yale Law School LL.B. 1962

Appointments

* Assistant Professor of Law, 1964
* Professor of Law, 1967
* Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, 1993

Representative Publications

* Dershowitz, Alan M. Preemption: A Knife that Cuts Both Ways (W.W. Norton & Company 2006).
Full text: AMAZON (Purchase)
* Dershowitz, Alan M. The Case for Peace (John Wiley & Sons 2005).
Full text: AMAZON (Purchase)
* Dershowitz, Alan M. America on Trial: Inside the legal battles that transformed our nation -from the Salem witches to the Guantanamo Detainees (Warner Books 2004).
Full text: AMAZON (Purchase)
* Dershowitz, Alan M. America Declares Independence (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2003).
Full text: AMAZON (Purchase)
* Dershowitz, Alan M. The Case for Israel (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2003).
Full text: AMAZON (Purchase)
* Dershowitz, Alan M. Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age (Little Brown 2002).
Full text: AMAZON (Purchase)
* Dershowitz, Alan M. Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge (Yale University Press 2002).
Full text: AMAZON (Purchase)
* Dershowitz, Alan M. Letters to a Young Lawyer (Basic Books 2001).
Full text: AMAZON (Purchase)
* Dershowitz, Alan M. Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000 (Oxford University Press 2001).
Full text: AMAZON (Purchase)
* Dershowitz, Alan M. The Genesis of Justice: Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice That Led to the Ten Commandments and Modern Law (Warner Books 2000).
Full text: AMAZON (Purchase)

Bibliography

View bibliography

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