Description:

Brandeis Louis 1856 - 1941 Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis ALS: Palestine needs to upbuild

Single page ALS, 5" x 6.5" adhered to a backing board. Signed and dated by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, "Washington 3/14/1927", and boldly signed "Louis D Brandeis". Light toning with expected folds. Boldly penned in strongly contrasting ink.


A fantastic boldly scripted ALS pertaining to one of Brandeis's passionate causes. Louis was active in the Zionist movement, seeing it as a solution to Antisemitism in Europe and Russia, while at the same time being a way to "revive the Jewish spirit". His letter, written to Harold Shapiro, president emeritus and professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, touches upon his thoughts on Palestine. Especially apropos as Shapiro was also a trustee of the American Jewish Committee and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

A lovely ALS shown in full below:

"Dear Mr. Shapiro

Replying to your courteous letter:

The supreme need of Palestine is its upbuilding on the lines set forth in the program adopted by the (illegible) Convention in November 1921

The Palestine Development Council is seeking to carryout that program.

Cordially

Louis D Brandeis"

Mr. Harold R Shapiro"

Brandeis considered a member of the Three Musketeers along with Brandeis and Stone, which was considered to be the liberal faction of the Supreme Court. In addition, Brandeis's had an overall involvement with the Federation of American Zionists began in 1912, as a result of a conversation with Jacob de Haas. His involvement provided the nascent American Zionist movement one of the most distinguished men in American life and a friend of the next president. Over the next several years he devoted a great deal of his time, energy, and money to championing the cause. With the outbreak of World War I in Europe, the divided allegiance of its membership rendered the World Zionist Organization impotent. American Jews then assumed a larger responsibility independent of Zionists in Europe. The Provisional Executive Committee for Zionist Affairs was established in New York for this purpose on August 20, 1914, and Brandeis was elected president of the organization. As president from 1914 to 1918, Brandeis became the leader and spokesperson of American Zionism. He embarked on a speaking tour in the fall and winter of 1914-1915 to garner support for the Zionist cause, emphasizing the goal of self-determination and freedom for Jews through the development of a Jewish homeland. Unlike the majority of American Jews at the time, he felt that the re-creation of a Jewish national homeland was one of the key solutions to antisemitism and the "Jewish problem" in Europe and Russia, while at the same time a way to "revive the Jewish spirit." He explained his belief in the importance of Zionism in a famous speech he gave at a conference of Reform Rabbis in April 1915:

The Zionists seek to establish this home in Palestine because they are convinced that the undying longing of Jews for Palestine is a fact of deepest significance; that it is a manifestation in the struggle for existence by an ancient people which has established its right to live, a people whose three thousand years of civilization has produced a faith, culture and individuality which enable it to contribute largely in the future, as it has in the past, to the advance of civilization; and that it is not a right merely but a duty of the Jewish nationality to survive and develop. They believe that only in Palestine can Jewish life be fully protected from the forces of disintegration; that there alone can the Jewish spirit reach its full and natural development; and that by securing for those Jews who wish to settle there the opportunity to do so, not only those Jews, but all other Jews will be benefited, and that the long perplexing Jewish Problem will, at last, find solution.

He also explained his belief that Zionism and patriotism were compatible concepts and should not lead to charges of "dual loyalty" which worried the rabbis and the dominant American Jewish Committee:

"Let no American imagine that Zionism is inconsistent with Patriotism. Multiple loyalties are objectionable only if they are inconsistent. A man is a better citizen of the United States for being also a loyal citizen of his state, and of his city; or for being loyal to his college.... Every American Jew who aids in advancing the Jewish settlement in Palestine, though he feels that neither he nor his descendants will ever live there, will likewise be a better man and a better American for doing so. There is no inconsistency between loyalty to America and loyalty to Jewry."

Supreme Court Justice, Brandeis was also considered a "Robin Hood" or "Peoples" lawyer who believed in representing people, all people, for what is right, and not just the people or groups with money who can afford legal council.

He began to give his opinion by writing magazine articles, making speeches, or helping form interest groups. He insisted on serving without pay so that he could freely address the wider issues involved beyond the case at hand. In an address to Harvard law students, he suggested that they should try to serve the people:

Instead of holding a position of independence, between the wealthy and the people, prepared to curb the excesses of either, able lawyers have, to a large extent, allowed themselves to become adjuncts of great corporations and have neglected the obligation to use their powers for the protection of the people. We hear much of the "corporation lawyer," and far too little of the "people's lawyer." The great opportunity of the American Bar is and will be to stand again as it did in the past, ready to protect also the interests of the people." [

A fantastic boldly scripted example by this passionate Supreme Court Justice.

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