Hadassa Ben-Itto | |
|---|---|
| Native name | הדסה בן-עת |
| Born | (1926-05-16)May 16, 1926 |
| Died | April 15, 2018(2018-04-15) (aged 91) |
| Occupation | Author and jurist |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Education | Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
| Alma mater | Tel Aviv University |
| Notable works | The Lie That Wouldn't Die: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion |
| Notable awards | Zeltner Prize |
| Spouse | Gershon Ben-Itto |
| Children | Orly |
| Relatives | David Lipmanowicz and Dvora Broder |
Hadassa Ben-Itto (Hebrew:הדסה בן-עתו; May 16, 1926 – April 15, 2018)[1][2] was an Israeli author andjurist. She was best known for her bestselling bookThe Lie That Wouldn't Die: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Ben-Itto was born on May 16, 1926, inBrzeziny, Poland, to David Lipmanowicz (1904–1994) and Dvora Broder (1906–1988), both natives of Brzeziny. Her father worked as a building contractor. The family immigrated toMandate Palestine in 1935, where another daughter, Nira, was born in 1937.[1] Ben-Itto graduated from the Ma'aleh religious high school inJerusalem and was an officer in theIsraeli army during the1948 Arab-Israeli War.[1][3] She married Gershon Ben-Itto (born 1920) in 1950 and had a daughter, Orly, in 1957. The couple divorced in 1982.[1]
After the 1948 war, Ben-Itto studied history, psychology andEnglish literature at theHebrew University of Jerusalem. She earned her law degree atTel Aviv University in 1954 and took post-graduate courses in law andcriminology atNorthwestern University of Chicago and theUniversity of Denver. She was admitted to theIsrael Bar Association 1955. For the next five years, she worked as a lawyer in private practice, specializing incriminal law.[1] Ben-Itto was appointed as a judge in Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court in 1960. In 1970 she moved to the Tel Aviv District Court. Between 1971 and 1974 she also taught criminal law at theBar-Ilan University law school. While conducting a bank robbery trial in July 1980, she survived a bombing attack on her home, which may have been related to the trial. In 1980 she was appointed acting judge in theIsraeli Supreme Court, and in 1988 became deputy president of the Tel Aviv District Court. She took early retirement from the court in 1991 in order to write her book,The Lie That Wouldn't Die: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[1]
During her tenure as a judge, Ben-Itto was appointed to head several government committees, including a committee onprostitution in Israel convened by theMinistry of Justice[1][3] and a committee onpatient rights convened by theMinistry of Health. She was a member of committees dealing withprison reform,probation, and patient rights.[3] In 1965 and 1975 she was a member of Israel's delegation to theUnited Nations General Assembly, holding the temporary rank ofambassador. She also represented Israel at international events, including the 1982UNESCO Conference on Human Rights inParis.[3] From 1988 to 2004, she served as president of theInternational Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists.[1][4] In 2004 she was elected honorary president, as well as head of a committee to combat antisemitism.[3]
From 1998 to 2002, Ben-Itto was one of the 17 internationalarbiters (and only woman) on the Claims Resolution Tribunal inZurich, which adjudicatedclaims against Swiss banks on behalf of Jewish depositors killed in theHolocaust.[1][3][5][6] She was the winner of the 1999 Zeltner Prize for outstanding Israeli jurists, and a 2003 citation of merit by theIsrael Bar Association.[1]
Ben-Itto began to researchThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion during her years on the bench, using her free time and court vacations to peruse the topic in footnoted academic studies. She found that not only was the subject little-known by Jews at large, but that historical and modern-dayantisemitism draws from the Protocols.[7] Desiring to write a book for the general public, she took early retirement in 1991 and spent six years writingThe Lie That Wouldn't Die: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[citation needed]
The book was published inHebrew in 1998 and has since been translated into ten languages, includingGerman,Russian,Dutch,Hungarian,Romanian,Bulgarian,Spanish,English,Arabic andPersian.[8]
With a flair forcourtroom drama, Ben-Itto centers the book on the 1934 trial inBern,Switzerland, where the local Jewish community took the localNazi party to court for publishing theProtocols. While the lower court judge ruled that the Protocols was a work ofplagiarism and constituted indecent literature, an appeals court threw out the claim of obscenity while agreeing with the lower court that the Protocols was "absolutely unjustified and outrageous insults and defamation".[7]
After the publication of her book, Ben-Itto would frequently speak and write about the relationship between antisemitism and current events, such as the2006 Lebanon War[9] and theArab world protests of 2010–2011.[10]
Ben-Itto died on April 15, 2018, inJerusalem, at the age of 91.[11]
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