In what is officially her last semester before retiring from BU School of Law, Professor Pnina Lahav teaches a comparative constitutional law course focused on the two states and societies she is most intimately familiar with: the United States and Israel. For the first time, the course enrolls not just LAW students but also advanced undergrads in Political Science and other CAS programs.
Over her distinguished career, Professor Lahav published scores of journal articles and three books, including the critically acclaimed Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, Winner of Israel’s Seltner Award (1998) and the Gratz College Centennial Book Award (1998). She is presently completing a biography of Israel’s fourth prime minister, Golda Meir, a biography that asks how a lone woman surrounded by men makes it to the top. As with her work on Agranat, her biography sheds light on the role of American Jews in shaping the Israeli judicial and political landscape. In 2017, the Association for Israel Studies recognized Professor Lahav’s contributions to the field with a Life Achievement Award.
Professor Lahav held fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, from the Center for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In March 2015, she delivered the Lapidus Lecture at Princeton University, and in 2017 she gave the Rockoff Lecture at Rutgers University and the Taubman Lecture at the University of California in Santa Barbara.
Lahav has taught at Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, The Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Herzlia, Oxford University and Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 in Lyon, France.
Lahav says that teaching Constitutional Law “automatically keeps your teaching fresh. Each year the Court addresses new issues and revisits old ones. Thus, there is always intellectual challenge and deeper exploration.” Known as an outstanding teacher, Professor Lahav was the recipient of the 2011 BU Law Melton Prize for excellence in teaching.
The faculty and students of the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies are proud to count Professor Lahav as a founding core member of the Center and a persistent supporter of the Center’s activities. We hope to have her as a guiding voice and an active contributor to all our endeavors for many years to come.
The photo above is Pnina Lahav with Sir Hans Kornberg and EWCJS director Michael Zank at the 2018 Elie Wiesel Memorial Lecture on “Kristallnacht” (Photo credit: Bill McCormick)