In a festive ceremony held this evening (Wednesday) at the Nation Buildings in Jerusalem, 1,017 new lawyers and editors were certified - including 577 women and 440 men.
>>>Public transportation on Purim: How will you get home from Jerusalem? • All the details
Among the new graduates: 302 university graduates, 705 college graduates and 10 new members who studied abroad.
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
After the certification ceremony, there are 79,163 active lawyers in Israel.
The ceremony was held in the presence of Supreme Court Justice Noam Solberg.
A moving moment at the ceremony was when Michal and Yaakov Gabbay, the parents of intern Shani Gabbay, who was murdered in the Nova Festival massacre, took the stage - they gave speeches and received an honorary membership certificate from the Bar Association on behalf of their daughter.
Shani Hayd, was an outstanding graduate of a law degree, interned at a law firm in Tel Aviv, and dreamed of working as a lawyer, a dream that was cut short before she could fulfill it.
Judge Noam Solberg congratulated the graduates: "We would do well to adopt Esther's advice - 'Come together': unity, coming together under a common denominator. We, the lawyers, have a special role in the reconstruction that we need; we all remember that on the eve of the war, political issues were at the top of the public agenda. Recent troubles have not forgotten the first, which continue to lie before us.".
""I have described in brief the kingdom of Persian despotism, wrapped in the trappings of law and government. The Israeli negative image cannot therefore be satisfied with individual-community charity; even on the public-institutional level, it is incumbent upon us, the legal community, to contribute our part, so that the Israeli legal system may be 'in its midst as it was created,' as Isaiah prophesied - 'In righteousness you shall establish me, far from oppression, for I shall not fear it, and from destruction, for it shall not come near you.'".
""Indeed, we must be worthy of the great sacrifice of the fallen, the wounded, and their families. In the overall moral effort, we, the people of law and justice, have a special role to play in diligently building a just, fair society, and continuing the glorious tradition of Beit Hillel and Shammai - a culture of respectful disagreement, and for the sake of Heaven.".
