Micha Lindenstrauss ( he, מיכה לינדנשטראוס) (28 June 1937 – 2 May 2019) was an Israeli judge and the State Comptroller between 2005 and 2012.

Biography

Micha Lindenstrauss was born in Berlin, Germany. His family immigrated to Mandatory Palestine when he was two years old, on the eve of World War II. He studied law at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

. He was married and a father to three daughters, one of whom is a judge. His cousin Joram Lindenstrauss was an Israeli mathematician and one of his distant relatives, the Israeli mathematician

Elon Lindenstrauss Elon Lindenstrauss ( he, אילון לינדנשטראוס, born August 1, 1970) is an Israeli mathematician, and a winner of the 2010 Fields Medal. Since 2004, he has been a professor at Princeton University. In 2009, he was appointed to Profess ...

is a

Fields Medal The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians under 40 years of age at the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place every four years. The name of the award ho ...

ist.

Judicial career

In the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

, he served as a

military prosecutor A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distin ...

, and later, as a judge in a military tribunal. In 1972, he became a Traffic Court judge, and then a Lower District Court judge in Haifa. In 1999, he was appointed president of the Haifa District Court. Later, he became chair of the Judges Delegation of Israel. Lindenstrauss's name reached headlines when he acquitted the suspects in the notorious gang rape of a fourteen-year-old girl in

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

Shimrat, a decision overturned by the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

. As chair of the Judges Delegation, he became known for his stern opposition to the abolition of the Judges Feedback by the Lawyers Guild of Israel, and helped lead the judges boycott against the Guild incident. Upon the retirement of State Comptroller,

Eliezer Goldberg Eliezer Goldberg ( he, אליעזר גולדברג; 24 May 1931 – 12 March 2022) was an Israeli judge and civil servant who served on the Supreme Court of Israel, and as the State Comptroller of Israel. Early life and legal career Goldberg w ...

, Lindenstrauss was the sole contender for the position. He was voted as State Comptroller by the Knesset (with 59 voting for, 29 against), a position he assumed in July 2005. In May 2006, Lindenstrauss became involved in a highly publicized dispute with Public Service Commissioner, Shmuel Hollander, who maintained Lindenstrauss's annual Comptroller report was unfairly and personally biased toward him, resulting in legal action. In April 2011 Lindenstrauss announced an investigation into Benjamin Netanyahu's travel at the expense of private businessmen, mainly American Jews.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindenstrauss, Micha 1937 births 2019 deaths Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Mandatory Palestine Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Law alumni 20th-century Israeli judges State Comptrollers of Israel 20th-century Israeli civil servants 21st-century Israeli civil servants 21st-century Israeli judges