Asher Grunis

Asher Grunis was born in 1945 in Tel Aviv

Asher Dan Grunis was born in Tel Aviv in 1945 to Yona Grunis and Bilha Margalit. He was named after his grandfather, Rabbi Asher Grunis, who served as a rabbi in Poland and Britain. He attended Geula high school.

After his army service he studied law and earned an LL.B. from the Hebrew University in 1968. He was admitted to the bar in 1969 and worked in private practice. He then earned a master's degree at the University of Virginia in 1972 and a doctorate at Osgoode Hall Law School in Canada.

He returned to Israel in 1976 and taught law at Tel Aviv University. In 1988 he became a judge of the Beersheba District Court, and in 1996 he moved to the Tel Aviv District Court. He joined the Supreme Court in 2002 and was appointed a permanent justice in 2003.

A law change, later called the Grunis Law, removed a limit that had blocked his appointment as president. Critics in the opposition and academia objected to it. He was sworn in as president on February 28, 2012, and served until January 17, 2015.

After retiring he chaired the search committee for the Attorney General in 2016 and 2022. In 2020 he became a professor at the University of Haifa, and in 2022 he was named head of the state inquiry into the submarine purchases. He is married to Rina Meshel-Grunis, a former district judge, and has 3 daughters.