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Supreme Court from visiting professor
Eyal Benvenisti of the law faculty at
Tel Aviv University.
"The admission process is long — a
year — and they need your entire aca-
demic record plus recommendations,"
Cherkasov says. "I'm really, really hon-
ored to be selected."

Going To Israel

Because Israel is such a young country,
areas of civil and international law are
not as developed as in other countries
such as the United States and
England, Cherkasov said. There's a lot
of work for the Supreme Court, and
he anticipates being in the middle of
it.
-"What exactly I'll be doing, I don't
know yet," he says. "You'll have to talk
to me again when I come back."
Although he's fluent in Russian,
French and English, Cherkasov doesn't
speak much Hebrew. What little he
knows comes from his 4-year-old
nephew, Marc, who attends the Sarah
and Irving Pitt Child Development
Center at the Jewish Community
Center of Metropolitan Detroit.
Cherkasov flies to Israel Jan. 1. He'll
be living in Nachalot, one of the old-'
est sections of Jerusalem, located near

the Supreme Court offices.
"Some of my friends are in rabbini-
cal school there," he says. "I've visited
them before, and my grandfather was
born in Israel. It'll be like a homecom-
ing."
Although the Supreme Court
internship is unpaid, Cherkasov has
received funding from the Clara
Belfield & Henry Bates Overseas
Fellowship program, which assists
recent U-M law school graduates or
students who have had two or more
years of law study to travel abroad for
study or work experience.
He is realistic about the specter of
violence in Israel, but refuses to let
what he terms "homicide bombers"
deter him. "If you don't go, you are
giving in to them," he says.
When he returns from Israel,
Cherkasov will begin working in
employment law at the Chicago offices
of McGuireWoods LLP, an interna-
tional law firm with offices in
Kazakhstan and Belgium as well as in
the United States.
Sometime in the future, he hopes to
attend rabbinical school — but not
right away.
"There are enough amazing rabbis
out there already," he says. ❑

Enjoying family life before he flies of to Jerusalem, Bernard Cherkasov relaxes with
father, Gregory, mother, Malika, and 4-year-old nephew, Marc.

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12/26
2003

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