Agranat, Shimon

Early Years and Education

Shimon Agranat was born in 1906 in Louisville , Kentucky , in the family of emigrants from Russia recently arrived in the United States ^[1] .

His father, Aaron Agranat, was a member of the Zionist movement Hovevei Zion , a supporter of political Zionism and he believed that the essence of Zionism lies not only in creating a Jewish national center in Palestine , but also in rebuilding Jewish culture ^[2] . Making a living teaching Hebrew , he dreamed of higher education (in those years, Russian universities were reluctant to accept Jews) and repatriation to Eretz-Israel. In 1904, Aaron joined the family of his future wife, Paul (Pnina) Schnitzer, who immigrated to the United States. For several years, the Agranates lived in Louisville, where they had the eldest son Shimon, but then moved to Chicago . In Chicago, Aaron realized his first dream: after graduating from college and receiving a doctorate in dental surgery (DDS), he opened his practice. Moving to the United States did not in any way affect the plans of Aaron and Paul to repatriate to Eretz Yisrael and in the same spirit they raised two sons.

The childhood and youth of Shimon Agranath passed in Chicago. Parents made sure that in addition to classes in public schools, their son would take private lessons. Father, with whom Shimon had a particularly warm relationship, spent hours talking with him about politics and other topics, and also took him with him to meetings - most often these were Zionist meetings. The Agranates in Chicago were visited by Haim Weizman , Haim Arlozorov and other Zionist figures. Shimon was one of the leaders of the Zionist youth movement Young Judea in Chicago. On his initiative, one of the movement's clubs was founded, as well as the monthly The Herzlite, whose editor he was.

As a result of frequent relocations, Shimon had to change schools. At the age of twelve, he graduated from the Humboldt Elementary School, where he served as president of the high school club. Being a capable student, he graduated from Tully High School in three and a half years, instead of four. At this school, he was an assistant editor of a school periodical. Dreaming of his future career, Agranat hesitated between journalism and jurisprudence ^[3] .

If the atmosphere in the House of Agranates strengthened Jewish and Zionist identity, then society and school contributed to the formation of American identity in Shimon. He was attracted to the ideas of social justice inherent in American progressivism , and he admired Louis Brandeis , who was the leader of both the Zionist and the progressive movement in the United States. “To be good Americans, we must become better Jews, and to be better Jews, we must become better Zionists,” Brandeis argued, and this point of view helped young Agranath solve the conflict between American and Zionist loyalty.

In 1922, the Shimon family attempted to repatriate to Eretz Yisrael. Arriving in Palestine, the Agranates stopped in Tel Aviv . Shimon entered the Herzliya Gymnasium , where he became the second native of the United States to attend this school. Soon the family was faced with insurmountable difficulties: there was no electricity in Tel Aviv, without which the Aaron Dental Clinic could not function. The second problem was the absence in Palestine of universities in which the sons of the Agranates could be educated in medicine or law. The family returned to Chicago, postponing for some time plans related to aliyah ^[4] .

In Chicago, Shimon studied at college, and then at the Law School of the University of Chicago ( en: University of Chicago Law School ). Of the courses taught at the faculty, he especially liked constitutional law and lectures on administrative law by Ernst Freund ( en: Ernst Freund ). During his studies at the university, he headed the Chicago branch of the student Zionist organization Avuka ( (Hebrew) - torch). In 1929 he graduated from the University and in February 1930 was admitted to the Bar Association ( en: Illinois State Bar Association ).

To summarize this period of Shimon Agranath’s life, we will quote Judge Chaim Cohen ’s words about Judge Agranath in 1977: “He was born in the United States of America and something American has not left him to this day. I do not mean a light American accent, but his character and way of thinking: apparently, a significant role is played by the fact that a person lives and is brought up in an atmosphere of freedom of opinion and freedom of speech, in an atmosphere in which efforts are constantly made to improve the well-being of his country and well-being of all mankind ... ” ^[5] .

Mandatory Palestinian Justice and Justice of the Peace

In 1930 , Shimon Agranat arrived in Palestine in the city of Haifa , where his family settled shortly before.

In order to obtain a license to practice law in Palestine, it was necessary to pass an exam for foreign lawyers, to have an internship of eighteen months and pass the exam to the Bar Association. In those years, about three hundred lawyers were registered in Palestine, of which two-thirds were Jews. Lawyer Mordechai Eliash from Jerusalem agreed to accept Shimon for an internship. Eliash was a legal adviser to the Zionist institutes of Yishuv , and also represented individuals in court - both Jews and Arabs. Eliash was an ideal mentor for a novice lawyer in Palestine. First of all, he explained to his intern that the chronic disease of legal culture in Palestine was corruption, inherited from the Ottoman Empire ^[6] .

Palestine's legal system included elements of Ottoman law, family religious law (Muslim, Christian, or Jewish) and British Credentials, which took precedence over other sources of law. Some lawyers preferred replacing most of Ottoman law with British law, while others wanted to preserve Ottoman law. In those years, the development of Palestinian law was characterized by the opposition of supporters of Western and Eastern law, as well as the aspirations of Jewish Yishuv, on the one hand, and the Arab population, on the other ^[7] .
An internship at a law office helped Agranat learn the practical aspects of local law and meet many Palestinian lawyers. In April 1932, he received permission to practice law.

At the end of the internship, Agranath was offered to join Eliash’s law office in Jerusalem, but he preferred to open his office in Haifa. At first he led the practice of law himself, but soon teamed up with lawyer Yaakov Halevi, with whom he opened an office in the lower part of Haifa near the port. Halevi’s contribution to the office successfully complemented the qualities of his partner. Shimon was more interested in the legal side of practice, he did some things for free, and he was less interested in efficiency and income generation issues. Many of the office's affairs were related to small real estate transactions and negotiable documents. However, Agranat did not limit himself to the practice of a small office. For example, he promoted the release on bail of repatriates who arrived in Palestine with Aliya Beth and were detained by the British. Law practice and partnership with Halevi continued until 1940.

In 1934, he married Carmel Friedlander. Carmel, like Shimon, was born in the United States. When she was nine years old, her father, Professor Israel Friedlander, was He was killed in Ukraine, where he was to help Jews, representing the organization " Joint ". Mother Carmel, being a fiery Zionist, repatriated to Eretz Yisrael with her six young children. In subsequent years, five children were born in the family of Shimon and Carmel.

With the beginning of the Arab uprising in 1936, Agranat mobilized in Haganu and patrolled in Haifa between Adar ha-Karmel (Jewish area) and the lower city where the Arabs lived. Having become a judge, he did not interrupt communication with Hagana, despite the fact that at some time the organization was forced to go underground.
During World War II, Haifa was bombed by Italian planes, which could not be distinguished between the British, Arabs and Jews. However, the sympathy of most Arabs was on the side of Nazi Germany ^[8] , where the former Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, was located . Agranath, like many Jews, joined the voluntary units of the British authorities created on the eve of the battle of El Alamein .

Colleagues highly appreciated the professional erudition of Agranat: he was appointed secretary of the steering committee of the Haifa Bar Association and lectured to expand the horizons of novice lawyers. However, over time, the work of a lawyer, coupled with finding clients, demanding to win cases and dissatisfaction with clients in case of loss, made him think about a new career. Hearing at a meeting of the Jewish Bar Association about the vacant position of magistrate in Haifa, he put forward his candidacy. At that time, the only Jewish judge in Haifa was Moshe Landa . After the interview, the Appointment Commission invited Agranat to take the position of Justice of the Peace, provided that he received Palestinian citizenship. The oath of allegiance to the British crown and the renunciation of American citizenship was not an easy dilemma for the Zionist. However, Shimon firmly believed that the territory of Palestine would become a national center for the Jewish people, and he decided to accept the position of justice of the peace, which he held in 1940-48.

In the magistrates' court, Agranat made friends with his colleague Judge Moshe Landoy, who was also a staunch Zionist. Both judges decided to write their court decisions in Hebrew. The district court president, who was trying to object to this initiative, soon reconciled to it.
During these years, the main features of the judicial philosophy of Agranat were formed, based both on the knowledge acquired at the university and on the practical experience of the judge. He considered the mandate system of law to be excessively formal and in his court decisions was not simply limited to legal formalism, believing that the decision should automatically follow from legal norms, but sought to weigh all conflicting interests of the problem. As a rule, his decisions were longer than generally accepted and included the analysis of many arguments and counter-arguments, as well as a large list of precedents. Many lawyers and judges in Haifa, who considered law as a means of earning money, were critical of the judicial philosophy of Agranath ^[9] .

After the end of World War II, the Zionist leadership insisted on the implementation of the Biltmore program , which led to an increasing conflict with the British authorities. Clandestine organizations in Yishuv conducted military operations against British targets, which the mandate authorities responded by introducing Defense Orders (state of emergency) and the Black Saturday operation, during which about 3,000 members of the Jewish resistance were arrested. These days, Agranath had to solve a difficult dilemma: to participate in trials of violators of curfews or to resign, thereby depriving the city of one of the few Jewish judges.
On November 29, 1947, the United Nations decided to partition Palestine . The Arab leadership categorically rejected this plan and intensified military action against Yishuv. In April 1948, Jewish troops captured Haifa, and in May 1948, Great Britain withdrew troops from Palestine and Ben-Gurion proclaimed the independence of the state of Israel. This fulfilled the long-term dream of Agranath, in the implementation of which he took an active part.

Haifa District Judge and Israeli Chief Justice

During the British Mandate in Palestine, the court included only a few Jewish judges. Of the seven judges in the Palestinian Supreme Court, only Gad Frumkin was Jewish. Judge Moshe Landoy wrote that during this period the number of Jewish district judges “did not exceed the number of fingers on one hand” ^[10] . At the end of the mandate, the British judges were evacuated, many Arab judges left the country of their own free will, but the judicial system continued to operate. With the proclamation of the state, Shimon Agranat received the appointment of a district judge and the post of chairman of the Haifa District Court ^[11] .

In September 1948, the grand opening of the Supreme Court in Jerusalem took place. In January 1949, Shimon Agranat received a temporary appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court, and on December 28, 1949 he was informed that the appointment to the Supreme Court was becoming permanent.

In March 1950, the cabinet of Prime Minister Ben-Gurion appointed a commission to study reports on the investigation into the murder of UN mediator Bernadotte in 1948. The commission, led by Judge Agranath, examined the Israeli police investigation file and an independent investigation report by the Swedish government. Many of the allegations in the Swedish report were rejected by the commission, but it acknowledged that the Israeli police investigation was not thorough enough. The commission also rejected proposals for a new investigation and recommended that Israel apologize to Sweden.

In 1953, Judge Agranat was at the head of the commission for the analysis of the state of youth crime ^[12] .
During the elections to the 3rd Knesset in 1955, he served as chairman of the Central Election Commission .

In the first two years in the Supreme Court, Agranat showed restraint, and his court decisions were characterized by the formalism adopted at that time. However, issues of civil liberties have always been in the center of his attention. The decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Ziv v. Gubernik ^[13] , which denied the legal status of the Declaration of Independence , did not coincide with his position. Agranat understood that in the absence of a constitution, the development of a bill of rights would fall to the Supreme Court ^[14] . During this period, Judge Agranat ruled in the case of Al-Quri v. Chief of the General Staff ^[15] , in which he set the standards for freedom of movement within the state. This decree was based on the English law that extended to Israel by virtue of the King’s Decree in the Council, as well as on the “principles of freedom” proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence.

Justice Minister Dov Yosef of the MAPAI party , who was appointed in December 1961, sought greater influence on the decisions of the government's legal adviser, which led to tensions between him and the adviser ^[16] . Legal Advisor Gideon Hausner insisted on the full independence of the position of adviser ^[17] . In June 1962, the government appointed a commission, headed by Judge Agranath, to determine the authority of the legal adviser to the government. The Commission noted that a legal adviser should have independence in decision-making. Agranat motivated this by the fact that the legal adviser is the guardian of the rule of law and protects the public interest. However, the commission also found that a legal adviser should consult with the minister. The minister was also allowed to take over the powers of an adviser. Thus, Agranat introduced a system of “checks and balances” between government officials. Generally speaking, the decisions of the legal adviser were independent of the Minister of Justice, the Cabinet of Ministers and the Knesset. In extreme cases, the minister could intervene in the decisions of the adviser, and the government could fire him, however, these cases were made public.

In 1954 - 1966, Professor Agranat taught a criminal law course at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem ^[18] .
From 1960 to 1966, Judge Agranat served as chairman of the Tribunal of the Congress of the World Zionist Organization (since 1979 the Tribunal has been called the Zionist Supreme Court) ^[19] .

Selected Decisions

• The Kol Ha-Am Case ^[20] .

• The Kastner Case ^[21] .

• Eichmann's appeal ^[22] .

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

Since 1960, Agranat served as deputy chairman of the Supreme Court. In 1965 , the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Yitzhak Olshan, reached the age of seventy and retired. In accordance with an unwritten rule called senority, Judge Shimon Agranat, who had the longest experience in the Supreme Court, was appointed his successor ^[23] .

As the chairman of the Supreme Court, Agranat first organized a conference of judges in order to strengthen a sense of community among judges of various instances and discuss issues of judicial decisions ^[24] . The conference was held in October 1965 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem ^[25] .

At the beginning of judicial practice, Agranat was criticized both for legal formalism and for excessive judicial activism. In the 1950s and early 1960s, he began to show a tendency to ideas of sociological jurisprudence ^[26] , applying law taking into account the needs of social development. At the last stage of his judicial career, when it came to issues that caused acute ideological differences in society, Agranat was increasingly guided by judicial restraint. That was his opinion in the Shalit case in 1970, such an approach influenced the recommendations of the Doomsday War investigation commission related to the political leadership of the state ^[27] .

Between 1965 and 1968, Judge Agranat served as a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ^[18] .
In 1968, Shimon Agranat was awarded the State Prize of Israel in the field of law ^[28] .

Agranath Commission

As a result of Israel’s heavy casualties during the Doomsday War, the government of Prime Minister Golda Meir decided to establish a state commission of inquiry. In accordance with the law, the commission was composed by the chairman of the Supreme Court, Judge Agranat, who personally headed it. This commission was called the “ Agranat Commission ”.
The final report of the commission was completed by January 1975. By that time, the commission had already prepared two preliminary reports, the first of which was partially published on April 1, 1974. This preliminary report not only shocked society and forced the government to resign, but also subjected the commission of Agranat and its members to fierce criticism and rude attacks ^[29] . The commission was accused of applying a double standard: assigning responsibility to the military command and recommending the dismissal of some generals, it refrained from similar recommendations in relation to members of the government. The attacks of the press on the commission, its chairman and even members of his family did not stop until the commission ended and interfered with its work. However, the Agranat commission found that Prime Minister Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan did not show personal irresponsibility on the eve of the war. The Commission also noted that, unlike military command, the government bears parliamentary responsibility before the Knesset, which could issue a vote of no confidence to the government if it is convinced that such a step is necessary.
Professor Pnina Lahav, author of the biography of Judge Agranath, expressed confidence that the conclusions and recommendations of the commission are based on the impeccable honesty of Agranath and on his desire to act in the best way for the good of his country ^[30] .

Selected Decisions 1965 - 1976

• The Yardor Case ^[31] .

• The Shalit Case ^[32] .

• The case of the protection of holy places on the Temple Mount ^[33] .

After retirement

After retiring, Agranat devoted himself to teaching at the Bar-Ilan University and scientific activities in the field of law ^[34] . He rarely agreed to give interviews to the media, but when this happened, the journalists were more interested in the topic of the Agranat Commission than the judicial legacy of Judge Agranat.

From 1988 to 1992, Judge Agranat served as president of the Civil Rights Protection Association in Israel ^[35] .

Shimon Agranat died on August 10, 1992 and is buried in Jerusalem.

His name is given to the square near the Supreme Court in Jerusalem.

In June 1955, Judge Benjamin Halevi of the Jerusalem District Court acquitted journalist Malkiel Grunwald on three of four counts of defamation against party leader MAPAI and high-ranking civil servant Rudolf Kastner . Grunwald was acquitted of incriminating Kastner: 1. Collaboration with the Nazis; 2. Indirect participation in the preparation of the massacre of Jews of Hungary; 3. Testimony in favor of an SS officer after the war. The judge, in his order, concluded that Kastner "sold his soul to the devil."
Since Kastner’s case was related to the MAPAY party, the government decided to appeal the decision of the district court ^[36] , and the State Attorney's Office appealed to the Supreme Court. A reasoned decision on this appeal was written by Judge Agranath, who convicted Grunwald of defamation on all counts, with the exception of the clause on Kastner’s rescue of an SS officer. Three judges supported the decision of Agranath, but Judge Zilberg in his dissenting opinion did not agree with his colleagues and confirmed that the publication of Kastner’s collaboration with the Nazis was not slanderous. Before the trial ended, an attempt was made on Kastner, and he died in the hospital.
Given that Kastner was charged with serious crimes, Judge Agranat demanded from Grunwald convincing and clear evidence that was adopted in criminal trials. From the point of view of the judge of the first instance, Kastner, “sold his soul to the devil” on May 2, 1944, when he accepted the Nazi proposal to save 600 (later this number increased to 1685) Jews. Based on the same testimonies and documents, Agranat came to another conclusion, according to which Kastner, who headed the Committee for the Salvation of Jews in Budapest, sought to save not only a group of 600 Jews, including his relatives and associates, but to save the maximum possible number of Jews in Hungary. This followed from the contents of the Committee’s deal with the Nazis on the eve of May 2 and from Kastner’s behavior after that date. Despite the fact that for the Nazis, the promise to save a small group of Jews was only a ruse in order to freely deport Auschwitz and destroy a significant part of Hungarian Jews, Kastner was not a collaborator. He did not unravel the plan of Eichmann and to the end tried to implement a plan for the redemption of Jews. Judge Agranat noted that Grunwald’s publication was just slanderous, not acceptable criticism.
The publication of Grunwald sparked a heated public debate about the fate of Hungarian Jews during the genocide of the Jewish people in Europe . This discussion later resumed during the Eichmann trial.

In September 1965, Judge Moshe Landoy , Chairman of the Central Election Commission The Knesset of the 6th convocation informed representatives of the Arab Socialist List party that this list was not approved for the election. The commission’s decision was made on the grounds that this party denied the integrity of the State of Israel and its right to exist and was therefore an illegal organization. Lawyer Yaakov Yardor, a member of the left group, appealed to the Supreme Court against the decision of the election commission.
None of the three judges on the Supreme Court challenged the facts established by the election commission. However, Judge Chaim Cohen did not see in the sources of law the powers of the commission, allowing it to remove the "Socialist List" from participating in the elections. Judges Agranat and Zusman ruled that the commission had made a lawful decision and thus the appeal was dismissed.
Justifying the source of the powers of the election commission, Judge Agranat turned to the Declaration of Independence, which not only says that Israel is a sovereign, independent, freedom-loving state with popular rule, but also proclaims that Israel was created by the Jewish state in Eretz-Israel. The very existence of the State of Israel, its immortality, is the basic constitutional principle that no state body, including the Central Election Commission, can neglect. Judge Agranath was the first to declare the Jewish character of the State of Israel a constitutional value ^[37] .
Judge Agranat also noted that freedom of general elections and freedom of organizations and parties are guaranteed in a democratic state, but he (like Judge Zusman) ruled that in the event of a threat of annihilation, a democratic state has the right to defend itself ^{[38] [39]} .

A friend and long-term colleague of Agranat, judge Moshe Landoi, who repeatedly went to the board of the court with him, admitted that there were cases when only with time he began to understand the significance of Agranat's decrees for future generations ^[40] .

The decision of Judge Agranath in the Kol Ha-Am case is one of the most important decisions of the Supreme Court since its inception. In this decision, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are defined as one of the highest values ​​of Israeli society and Israeli law ^[41] .
Judge Aaron Barak gave the following assessment to the Kol Ha-Am ruling ^[42] : “In the vast sea of ​​court decisions, truly outstanding rulings can be found that illuminate the path both close and long distances. These are milestones that determine the direction of the development of law when it is at a crossroads. These are the few decrees that pave the way for the future and contribute to the development of law. Of all these outstanding court decisions, the decree of Judge Agranath in the Kol Ha-Am case takes a special place. This decision was made in the early fifties. At that time, it made an invaluable contribution to Israeli law. To this day, this ruling is one of the most important court decisions. ”

Speaking at an evening in honor of Shimon Agranat, Judge Meir Shamgar noted that Agranat used his gift of a comprehensive and holistic vision in many areas of law. As an example, he cited a ruling in the Tamarin case, in which Agranat’s judicial decision related to public law is based on basic values ​​and takes into account national goals. This resolution also reflects Agranath’s views on Zionism ^[43] : “The great event of the creation of the State of Israel - that is, the revival of the life of the Jewish people in their own country in their homeland - was not done so that the people living in Zion split into two nations: the Jewish and "Israeli". If such a separation had happened, Gd forbid, it would have been contrary to the national goals for which the state was created; the consequences of such a split could undermine the unity of the entire Jewish people ” ^[44] .

The most complete assessment of the judicial heritage of Agranath was given by Judge Chaim Cohen ^[45] :

The "Founding Fathers" of the United States, whose names are all repeated with admiration and nostalgia, were the authors of a written constitution; Our "founding fathers" - with the exception of statesmen who stood at the helm - are apparently those who laid the foundations of citizen rights in our unwritten constitution. It fell to Agranat to be the first to consolidate freedom of opinion and freedom of speech in our constitution, and also established that Israeli democracy has the right and obligation to protect itself from destroyers from the inside, and this right and obligation is higher than the written law. As the founder of the concept of human rights and freedoms in the current law, as a prophet of true democracy, as a preacher of the rule of law and equality, Agranat followed his American predecessors Holmes, Brandeis, Cardoso and Frankfurter and took a worthy place in the brilliant constellation of judges.

Original text (Hebrew)

י "האבות המייסדים" שבארצות-הברית, ששמם נישא בפי כל מתוך הנוסטלגיה וההערצה, הלא הם מחברי החוקה הכתוה; "האבות המייסדים" שלנו אולי הם - חוץ מן המדינאים שעמדו ליד ההגה מניחי היסודות לזכויות האזרח בחוקתיו תבת. בחלקו הטוב של אגרנט נפל לקבוע ראשונה את חופש הדעה והדיבור שבחוקתנו, ואת זכותו וחובתו של הדימוקרטיה הישראלית להגן על עצמה מפני מחבלים מבפנים - זכויות וחובות אשר הן מעל ומעבר לחוק החקוק. כמחדש זכויות-יסוד, כנביא הדימוקרטיה הצרופה, כמטיף לשלטון המשפט ולשוויון הכל, הולך אגרנט בעקבות קודמיו האמריקאיים הולמס וברנדייס, קרדוזו ופרנקפורטר, ומצטרף לשורותיהם בשלשלת יוחסין מפוארת

• Shimon Agranat. On Human Rights: Opening Address = On Human rights - Opening Address // Israel Yearbook on Human Rights. - 1971. - T. 1 . - S. 363-365 .
• Shimon Agranat. Supreme Court in Action = The Supreme Court in Action // The Jerusalem Post . - May 6, 1973.
• Shimon Agranat. Contribution of the judiciary to the development of legislation (Hebrew) // June Mishpat . - Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University, 1984. - T. 10 , No. 2 . - S. 233-256 .
• Shimon Agranat. Changes in criminal law (Hebrew) // June Mishpat . - Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University, 1985. - T. 11 , No. 1 . - S. 33-66 .

Shimon Agranat owns several dozen articles in Hebrew and in English. A list of his publications is provided in the book “The 80th Anniversary of Shimon Agranat” on pages 437-438.

• Pnina Lahav. Refereeing in Jerusalem: Supreme Judge Shimon Agranath and the Age of Zionism. = Judgment in Jerusalem. Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century. - Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1997 .-- ISBN 0-520-20595-2 .
  See also Pnina Lahav. Refereeing in Jerusalem: Supreme Judge Shimon Agranath and the Age of Zionism. (unspecified) . UC Press E-Books Collection (1997). Date of treatment November 25, 2011. Archived on May 17, 2012.
• Pnina Lahav. The article “Notes on the Legal Worldview of Judge Agranath” in the collection “The 80th Anniversary of Shimon Agranat” (Hebrew) .. - Jerusalem, October, 1986. - P. 9-33.
• Professor Shimon Agranat (1906 - 1992), 3rd President of the Israeli Supreme Court (Hebrew) (Neopr.) . Museum of Judicial Heritage. Date of treatment November 25, 2011. Archived on May 17, 2012.
• Shimon Agranat - article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia
• Chaim Cohen . About Shimon Agranath (Hebrew) // Mishpatim . - Law Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1977. - T. 7 . - S. 371-374 .
• Meir Shamgar . Speech in honor of the 80th anniversary of the President of the Supreme Court, Judge Shimon Agranat (Hebrew) . // Mishpatim . - Law Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1987. - T. 17 , No. 1 . - S. 207-211 .
• Aaron Barack . The article “Chairman of the Supreme Court Agranat:“ Kol Ha-Am “- the voice of the people” in the collection “80th anniversary of Shimon Agranat” (Hebrew) .. - Jerusalem, October, 1986. - S. 129-144.
• Moshe Landoy . The article “On Judge Shimon Agranate - Personal Memories” in the collection “The 80th Anniversary of Shimon Agranat” (Hebrew) .. - Jerusalem, October, 1986. - S. 1-4.
• Moshe Landoy . In memory of Shimon Agranath. (Hebrew) // Mishpat ve mimshal . - Faculty of Law, University of Haifa, 1993. - T. 1 , no. 2 . - S. 249-250 .
• Shimon Agranath Interview with Israeli Television on October 10, 1988.
• Sarit Fuchs. Agranat, who is behind the report of the State Commission (Hebrew) // Maariv Newspaper. - October 11, 1991.