Yitzhak Raveh
Encyclopedia
Yitzhak Raveh was a German
-born Israel
i judge who was one of the panel of three judges presiding over the trial of Adolf Eichmann
.The other two judges were Moshe Landau
and Benjamin Halevi.
, Lower Saxony
, Germany. His given name at birth was Franz Reuss. He was the youngest of six children born to Heinrich and Selma Reuss. His father was a teacher, Hebrew scholar and author. In 1908, Heinrich Reuss and his family moved from Aurich to Berlin
.
Yitzhak Raveh grew up in an environment of both German and Jewish cultures. After his primary and secondary education at local German schools, he studied law at the University of Berlin from 1924 to 1927, completing his law degree in 1927, and obtained his Doctorate of Law in 1929. After two years in a private law practice, Raveh was appointed as a Court Assessor, Assistant Judge, and Judge at the Court of First Instance at Charlottenburg, positions he held from 1931 until the spring of 1933. When the Nazi Party rose to power in 1933, he sensed an increasing animosity and competitiveness directed at him by his colleagues at the court, leading him to tend his resignation from his post on March 31, 1933. A day later, all Jewish Judges who had been admitted to the Bar after 1 August 1914 were permanently removed from the bench. Within a month, Judge Raveh, with his young wife Batya, boarded a ship for Israel, then the British mandate of Palestine.
In Israel, Judge Raveh quickly resumed his legal profession and rose from a private law practice, through directorship of the Israeli Land Registration Ministry, to his appointment in 1952 as Judge in the Tel Aviv-Yafo District Court, a position he held until his retirement in 1976, and in which he specialized in Land Law. Upon accepting the judgeship, he officially changed his given name at birth, Franz Reuss, to Yitzhak Raveh (initially spelled Ravé).
In 1960, Judge Yitzhak Raveh agreed to serve on the special, three-judge panel at the Jerusalem District Court created for the trial of Adolf Eichmann who had been instrumental in the annihilation of hundreds of thousands of European Jews during the Second World War. Judge Raveh was asked to serve on that sensitive trial because of his judicial acumen, his thorough familiarity with the German language, literature, philosophy, educational system and culture, and because none of his immediate family had been exterminated during the war, as his parents were already dead and his siblings had left Germany before the war broke out. It was his familiarity with German philosophy and education that became pivotal to the trial, in that, in questioning the defendant, Judge Raveh forced Eichmann to assume and acknowledge responsibility for his acts in accordance with the moral law dogma prescribed by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant
, to which Eichmann had been exposed as a student.
As an expert in Land Law, Judge Raveh later headed a parliamentary committee, named after him, the mandate of which was to overhaul Israeli rental laws including those for the protection of lodgers. Judge Raveh also engaged in academic pursuits, such as lecturing at symposia at the Tel Aviv University
, publishing in law journals, and training future lawyers and judges.
After retiring from the court in 1976, Judge Raveh pursued his life-long extracurricular interests that included extensive reading, music appreciation and travel. Judge Raveh died on November 8, 1989 from complications of prostatic cancer and heart failure. His wife predeceased him in 1983. In 2011, he is survived by two daughters, three grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-born Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i judge who was one of the panel of three judges presiding over the trial of Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
.The other two judges were Moshe Landau
Moshe Landau
Moshe Landau was an Israeli jurist. He was the fifth President of the Supreme Court of Israel.-Biography:Landau was born in Danzig, Germany to Dr. Isaac Landau and Betty née Eisenstädt...
and Benjamin Halevi.
Biography
Yitzhak Raveh was born in AurichAurich
Aurich is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Aurich.-History:The history of Aurich dates back to the 13th century, when the settlement of Aurechove was mentioned in a Frisian document called the Brokmerbrief in 1276. In 1517, Count Edzard from the house of...
, Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
, Germany. His given name at birth was Franz Reuss. He was the youngest of six children born to Heinrich and Selma Reuss. His father was a teacher, Hebrew scholar and author. In 1908, Heinrich Reuss and his family moved from Aurich to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
Yitzhak Raveh grew up in an environment of both German and Jewish cultures. After his primary and secondary education at local German schools, he studied law at the University of Berlin from 1924 to 1927, completing his law degree in 1927, and obtained his Doctorate of Law in 1929. After two years in a private law practice, Raveh was appointed as a Court Assessor, Assistant Judge, and Judge at the Court of First Instance at Charlottenburg, positions he held from 1931 until the spring of 1933. When the Nazi Party rose to power in 1933, he sensed an increasing animosity and competitiveness directed at him by his colleagues at the court, leading him to tend his resignation from his post on March 31, 1933. A day later, all Jewish Judges who had been admitted to the Bar after 1 August 1914 were permanently removed from the bench. Within a month, Judge Raveh, with his young wife Batya, boarded a ship for Israel, then the British mandate of Palestine.
In Israel, Judge Raveh quickly resumed his legal profession and rose from a private law practice, through directorship of the Israeli Land Registration Ministry, to his appointment in 1952 as Judge in the Tel Aviv-Yafo District Court, a position he held until his retirement in 1976, and in which he specialized in Land Law. Upon accepting the judgeship, he officially changed his given name at birth, Franz Reuss, to Yitzhak Raveh (initially spelled Ravé).
In 1960, Judge Yitzhak Raveh agreed to serve on the special, three-judge panel at the Jerusalem District Court created for the trial of Adolf Eichmann who had been instrumental in the annihilation of hundreds of thousands of European Jews during the Second World War. Judge Raveh was asked to serve on that sensitive trial because of his judicial acumen, his thorough familiarity with the German language, literature, philosophy, educational system and culture, and because none of his immediate family had been exterminated during the war, as his parents were already dead and his siblings had left Germany before the war broke out. It was his familiarity with German philosophy and education that became pivotal to the trial, in that, in questioning the defendant, Judge Raveh forced Eichmann to assume and acknowledge responsibility for his acts in accordance with the moral law dogma prescribed by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
, to which Eichmann had been exposed as a student.
As an expert in Land Law, Judge Raveh later headed a parliamentary committee, named after him, the mandate of which was to overhaul Israeli rental laws including those for the protection of lodgers. Judge Raveh also engaged in academic pursuits, such as lecturing at symposia at the Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
, publishing in law journals, and training future lawyers and judges.
After retiring from the court in 1976, Judge Raveh pursued his life-long extracurricular interests that included extensive reading, music appreciation and travel. Judge Raveh died on November 8, 1989 from complications of prostatic cancer and heart failure. His wife predeceased him in 1983. In 2011, he is survived by two daughters, three grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.