Yitzhak Raveh was a German-born Israeli judge who was one of the panel of three judges presiding over the trial of Adolf Eichmann.
Background
Yitzhak Raveh was born in Aurich, Lower Saxony, Germany, the youngest of six children born to Heinrich and Selma Reuss. His father was a teacher, Hebrew scholar and author Reuss grew up in an environment of both German and Jewish cultures.
Education
After completing his primary and secondary education at local German schools, he studied law at the University of Berlin, completing his degree in 1927.
Career
The other judges were Moshe Landau and Benjamin Halevi. He was given the name Franz Reuss. When he was two years old, his family moved to Berlin.
He earned a Doctorate of Law in 1929 at the University of Halle.
After two years of private practice, Reuss 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 came to power that year, Reuss sensed an increasing animosity and competitiveness directed at him by his colleagues at the court, causing him to resign his post on March 31, 1933.
The next day, all Jewish Judges who had been admitted to the Bar after 1 August 1914 were permanently removed from the bench. Reuss resumed his legal profession in Palestine.
He rose from private law practice, through directorship of the new Israeli Land Registration Ministry, followed by his appointment in 1952 as judge in the Tel Aviv-Yafo District Court, He held this position until his retirement in 1976, specializing in Land Law.
Upon accepting the judgeship, he officially changed his name to Yitzhak Raveh (initially spelled Ravé). In 1960, Judge Raveh agreed to serve on a special, three-judge panel at the Jerusalem District Court created for the trial of Adolf Eichmann, who had been instrumental in the annihilation of millions of European Jews during the Second World War. Raveh had been asked to serve because of his judicial acumen, his familiarity with the German language, literature, philosophy, educational system and culture, and because he had lost no family in the war.
As an expert in Land Law, Raveh later headed a parliamentary committee, named after him, which overhauled Israeli rental laws, including those for the protection of lodgers.
Raveh also lectured at symposia at the Tel Aviv University, wrote for law journals, and trained future lawyers and judges. After retiring from the court, Raveh pursued his lifelong interests of reading, music appreciation and traveling
He died in 1989 from complications of prostatic cancer and heart failure.