HERBSTEIN, JOSEPH

HERBSTEIN, JOSEPH (1897–1983), South African jurist. Born in Graaff-Reinet, South Africa, he was the son of Morris Isaac Herbstein who had gone from Romania to Palestine with the Bilu pioneers in the early 1880s, but had been forced to leave the country because of malaria and blackwater fever. Joseph Herbstein practiced at the Cape bar. He became a king's counsel in 1939 and was the first Jew raised to the bench in the Cape Division (1946). As senior judge, he acted for a time as judge president of the Division. He retired in 1963 and settled in Israel. His writings include two authoritative legal works, The Civil Practice of the Superior Courts in South Africa, with L. van Winsen (1954) and The Magistrates' Courts Act with A.W.E. Baker and S. Aaron (1954). A Zionist from youth, Herbstein founded the first Students' Zionist Society (at Rhodes University) in South Africa. Forthright and outspoken in his views, he was an ardent public worker, led many fund-raising campaigns for Zionism, and held high office in the South African Zionist Federation. He was a governor of the Haifa Technion and of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (Lewis Sowden)