After the establishment of the State of Israel, he was appointed manager of the legislation department of the Ministry of Justice, and later became State Attorney. In 1949 he was made CEO of the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General of Israel a year later.[3] As Attorney General, he decided to indict Malchiel Gruenwald, starting the Rudolf Kastner trial[5]
and decided to ignore the (British based) law "and refrained from pressing charges on the conduct of homosexual relations between consenting adults".
[6]
In 1952 he was also Minister of Justice, without being an MK.[7] In 1960 he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Israel, a position he held until his retirement in 1981.[3]
He wrote five books, including The Trial and Death of Jesus in 1968,[1] in which he argued that it was the Romans, not the Sanhedrin, who tried and executed Jesus.[8]
Cohn's relationship with Orthodox Judaism was generally perceived as strained, however, in at least one instance, in 1975, Cohn was honored by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of the Chabad-LubavitchHasidic dynasty with participation in the annual Simchat Torah ceremonies.[9][10]
He died in 2002.[1] President of the Supreme Court Aharon Barak cited him as one of the founders of Israeli law.[3]