Alan Dershowitz

Alan Dershowitz
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 "an exceptional, action packed book," The Trials of Zion, a novel which has been called "a thought-provoking page turner," 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, Shouting Fire 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, Tel Aviv University, New York City College and Haifa University.

ARTICLES BY: Alan Dershowitz

July 18, 2019 8:48 am

Alan Dershowitz: ‘The New Yorker’ Is Trying to Silence Me

I recently learned, from a source close to The New Yorker magazine, that its editor, David Remnick, has commissioned a hit piece against me for...

June 18, 2019 6:39 am

There Is No Religious Right to Refuse Vaccines

New York just eliminated all religious exemptions for mandatory measles vaccination. It was the right thing to do. There is no constitutional basis for requiring...

April 22, 2019 4:06 pm

Alan Dershowitz: Shmuley Boteach Lies to Cover Up His Hypocrisy

Shmuley Boteach -- who falsely brags of being “America’s rabbi” because he has no congregation of his own -- continues to recycle old lies about...

April 17, 2019 5:12 pm

Alan Dershowitz Responds to Shmuley Boteach: You Won’t Silence Me

Shmuley Boteach is at it again. Now he is telling me what I can and can’t say to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- a...

January 23, 2019 2:38 pm

Alan Dershowitz: Women’s March Participants Colluded With Antisemitism

This article first appeared in Gatestone. Those women and men who marched in the Women's March under the leadership of Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory colluded...

October 30, 2018 2:03 pm

A US Citizen Is Being Held Hostage by a Rabbinical Court in Israel

An elderly and sick US citizen has been held hostage for three years by a rabbinical court in Israel. He is being threatened with imprisonment...

October 9, 2018 8:35 am

Brett Kavanaugh and the ACLU

Now that Brett Kavanaugh has been confirmed, it is appropriate to look at the damage caused by the highly partisan confirmation process. Among the casualties is...

September 20, 2018 2:46 pm

New Eichmann Film Puts the Lie to Hannah Arendt’s ‘Banality of Evil’

One of the most notorious lines -- and lies -- that grew out of the trial of Adolph Eichmann for his important role in the...

September 14, 2018 8:24 am

Defending Donald Trump

During Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) questioned the legitimacy of the judge’s appointment to the High Court. Blumenthal said in his opening...

September 12, 2018 2:56 pm

Alan Dershowitz: Why Did the Clintons Share the Stage With Farrakhan?

A version of this article first appeared in The Hill. Imagine President Trump being invited to speak at the funeral of a white singer who he admired (say,...

May 16, 2018 12:52 pm

Alan Dershowitz: Why Does the Media Keep Encouraging Hamas Violence?

This article was first published in The Hill. If this were the first time that Hamas deliberately provoked Israel into self-defense actions that resulted in the...

May 9, 2018 4:37 pm

Alan Dershowitz: NBC’s Demonization of Bolton and Gatestone

When I was growing up, organizations that expressed any views at all similar to those expressed by Communist groups were called "Communist fronts." Anyone who...

April 24, 2018 12:23 pm

Alan Dershowitz: Why I Vigorously Defend President Trump’s Rights

Just as the first casualty of war is truth, so too the first casualty of hyper-partisan politics is civil liberties. Many traditional civil libertarians have allowed...

April 16, 2018 7:21 am