Olshan, Yitzhak

Yitzhak Olshan was born in 1895 in the city of Kaunas, Lithuania. In 1912 Olshan immigrated to Israel. In 1923 Olshan traveled to London to study at the University of London and returned to Israel in 1927 with a degree in jurisprudence. As a lawyer in British Mandate Palestine, Olshan frequently represented in court the local Jewish population in cases which were of great public interest. With the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, Olshan was appointed as one of the first five Justices of the Israeli Supreme Court, and in 1954 he was appointed president. Olshan retired in 1965 at the age of 70 and passed away in 1983 a few days before his 88^th birthday.