A Thousand Miracles w/ Theodor Meron

In this conversation with Judge Meron, we will discuss his new memoir, A Thousand Miracles: From Surviving the Holocaust to Judging Genocide. 

We will reflect on his remarkable life story, his love for Shakespeare and the law, and some of the transformative moments of his career as legal adviser, diplomat, scholar, international Judge and President of the ICTY and the IRMCT.

The event is held in cooperation between the Grotius Centre of International Legal Studies and the British Embassy in The Hague’s International Justice Seminar Series.

About the book

When the Second World War began, Theodor Meron was a Jewish-born boy of just 9. He survived ghettos, camps and unimaginable atrocities, but lost most of his family, finding sanctuary in British Palestine after the Holocaust. Now, more than eight decades later, Judge Meron is a recognised world leader in both the scholarship and practice of international criminal justice—having served as the president of three UN tribunals, delivering landmark decisions on genocide and war crimes.

This extraordinary memoir revisits Meron’s time as a legal adviser to governments, often swimming against the tide; as a restless diplomat, a boundary-pushing scholar and ultimately a ground-breaking international judge. Meron has given his life to the service of justice. He is famous for his 1967 opinion finding Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank to be illegal under international law, an opinion he issued as a legal adviser to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. More recently, he has advised the International Criminal Court on potential crimes in the Russia–Ukraine war, and in Israel and Gaza since 2023.

The founding institutions of international justice today face unprecedented threats. Meron’s life story could not be a better timed reminder of the importance of accountability.

About the author

Judge Theodor Meron CMG was born in Poland. As a child, he survived the Holocaust, but lost his home, most of his family, and years of freedom. In 1945 he emigrated to Mandatory Palestine. He holds law degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Harvard University and the University of Cambridge.