Felix Frankfurter was born on November 15, 1882, in Vienna, Austria. When he was 12 his family moved to New York. He went to City College and then to Harvard Law School. After a brief period, he worked as an assistant District Attorney and then worked for the US government. He began teaching at Harvard Law. During World War I he became the Judge Advocate General. He was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court for over two decades, having been appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt to replace Justice Cardozo.
As a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, Frankfurter was a part of many important and controversial legal contests of the day including the defense of Sacco and Vanzetti. Frankfurter was also an ardent Zionist, deeply involved in issues surrounding the establishment of the State of Israel and its growth thereafter.