The_Info_Web/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Amnon Rubinstein.md

aliases	category	tags	summary	born	died	location	relations	created	updated
Amnon Rubinstein Prof. Amnon Rubinstein Dr. Amnon Rubinstein Rubinstein	Political Figure	Person Israel Knesset Shinui Meretz ConstitutionalLaw UriGeller TelAvivUniversity	Israeli law professor and Knesset member (1977 to 2001), founder of Shinui and minister of communications and of education, whom Uri Geller named as the confidant to whom he confessed faking a trick in 1970.	1931-09-05	2024-01-18	Tel Aviv, Israel	type with start end role fn employed_by Tel Aviv University 1961 1975 professor of law; dean of the Faculty of Law, 1968 to 1973 2 type with start role fn founded Shinui 1974 founded the Shinui (Change) movement after the Yom Kippur War 3 type with start end role fn member_of Knesset 1977 2001 Democratic Movement for Change (9th Knesset), Shinui (9th to 12th), Meretz (12th to 15th) 2 type with start end role fn employed_by Government of Israel 1984 1987-05-26 Minister of Communication, 21st and 22nd governments 2 type with start end role fn employed_by Government of Israel 1992 1993-06-07 Minister of Science and Technology until December 31, 1992, then Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, 25th government 2 type with start role fn employed_by Government of Israel 1994-05-30 Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, 25th and 26th governments 2 type with role fn employed_by Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya dean of the Radzyner School of Law, provost, and president for a year 4	2026-05-15	2026-10-05

Amnon Rubinstein was born in Tel Aviv on September 5, 1931 and died there on January 18, 2024. He served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, studied economics, international relations and law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was called to the Israel bar in 1963, and received a doctorate in law from the London School of Economics in 1966.¹²

Academic and journalistic career

Rubinstein was professor of law at Tel Aviv University from 1961 to 1975 and dean of its law faculty from 1968 to 1973; the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC) tribute of June 1, 2009 says he "laid the foundations of the faculty" as dean.¹³ During the same period he wrote for Haaretz and held debates on Israeli television "during its first years."³ His curriculum vitae lists him later as political commentator for Haaretz and Maariv, and as the author of Jurisdiction and Illegality (Clarendon Press, Oxford), Israel's Constitutional Law (Hebrew, 6th edition, Schocken, 2005), The Zionist Dream Revisited (Schocken, New York, 1984) and From Herzl to Rabin (Holmes and Meier, 2000).²

Uri Geller, 1969 to 1970

Annie Jacobsen reports that Rubinstein became a supporter of Uri Geller's extrasensory perception and psychokinesis from 1969, after meeting Geller at a party where Geller appeared to influence Rubinstein's thoughts, making him choose a number that Geller had already written down; that Rubinstein, "initially skeptical," was astonished; that Geller repeatedly "planted a thought right in our mind," such as a number or a capital city chosen by Rubinstein or his family, during informal tests at Rubinstein's home; that Rubinstein regarded this as more significant than spoon bending ("This is a single phenomenon that casts doubt on many of the foundations of our rational world"); and that he remained a defender of Geller against critics. Jacobsen further reports that Rubinstein advised Geller to go to the United States to be tested at a serious research institute such as Stanford Research Institute, which led to Geller's testing by the Central Intelligence Agency.⁴

Geller gives a different account on his own website. He writes that in 1970 a promoter at the Beit Hachayal auditorium in Tel Aviv asked him to fake a "clairvoyant" reveal of a car license plate number for a guest the promoter wished to impress, that he did so for "four or five performances," and that he then "confessed what I had done against my better judgment to a trusted and respected friend, Dr Amnon Rubinstein, who was then the dean of the Law School" (Geller places the school at the Hebrew University). Geller writes: "Amnon was horrified, and made me promise never to cheapen my talents again," and that Rubinstein told him he "should be co-operating with scientists and trying to find out" more about how the mind works.⁵

Political career

After the Yom Kippur War of 1973, according to the Jewish Virtual Library, Rubinstein concluded that he "could not rest only on his academic and journalistic laurels" and founded Shinui in 1974, a movement for free enterprise, electoral reform and a written constitution. It ran in the 1977 elections as part of the Democratic Movement for Change and became an independent Knesset faction in 1978, which Rubinstein chaired; in 1992 Shinui merged with Ratz and Mapam in Meretz.³⁶ His curriculum vitae gives his Knesset service as 1977 to 2001 (the IDC tribute says 25 years), as a member of the Democratic Movement for Change in the Ninth Knesset, of Shinui in the Ninth to Twelfth and of Meretz in the Twelfth to Fifteenth.²³

His curriculum vitae lists these government posts: Minister of Communication in the 21st government (1984 to 1985) and the 22nd government (until May 26, 1987); in the 25th government Minister of Science and Technology until December 31, 1992, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure until June 7, 1993, and from May 30, 1994 Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, a post he also held in the 26th government. His committee posts included chairman of the Economics Committee (Fourteenth Knesset) and chairman of both the State Control Committee and the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee (Fifteenth).² The IDC tribute credits him with passing the two Basic Laws on human rights and liberty and on free enterprise, and with opening academia to the public through colleges as education minister.³

Later positions and honors

After leaving the Knesset he was dean of the Radzyner School of Law at Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, then provost and, for a year, president. He was a board member and vice president of Liberal International and a member of the Israeli delegation to the Council of Europe's Venice Commission. He received the Israel Prize in 2006, when the judges described him as the "father of constitutional law in Israel."³⁷

Footnotes

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1. "Amnon Rubinstein," Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/amnon-rubinstein (education, bar admission 1963, doctorate 1966, professor 1961 to 1975, dean 1968 to 1973). ↩︎

2. Rubinstein, Amnon. Curriculum Vitae, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, https://runi.ac.il/media/te4psgeq/profilecv-he-il.pdf (born 05/09/1931 in Tel Aviv; Knesset membership; government roles and dates; publications). ↩︎

3. "The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya Pays Tribute to Amnon Rubinstein," Honorary Fellow citation signed by Prof. Uriel Reichman, June 1, 2009, https://runi.ac.il/media/fpvpfvlt/amnon-rubinstein.pdf ↩︎

4. Jacobsen, Annie. Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Sole source for the passages so cited. ↩︎

5. Geller, Uri. "Straightening the Record," https://urigeller.com/the-geller-effect/straightening-the-record/ (Geller's own account; sole source for the passages so cited). ↩︎

6. "Amnon Rubinstein," Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/amnon-rubinstein (Shinui founded 1974, Democratic Movement for Change 1977, independent faction 1978, Meretz merger 1992). ↩︎

7. "Amnon Rubinstein," Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/amnon-rubinstein (Israel Prize 2006, Liberal International, Venice Commission, death on January 18, 2024); "In Memoriam: LI Patron Professor Amnon Rubinstein," Liberal International, https://liberal-international.org/news-articles/in-memoriam-li-patron-professor-amnon-rubinstein/ ↩︎