Esther Hayut

Esther Hayut was born in 1953 in Herzliya

Esther Avni was born in 1953 in the Shaviv ma'abara in Herzliya to Yehuda and Yehudit Avni, Holocaust survivors from Romania. Her parents divorced when she was very young, and her father moved to England. She grew up with her grandparents in the Neve Amal neighborhood, then moved to Eilat in 1970 to live with her mother, finishing high school there in 1971.

She served in the IDF in the Central Command Band. She then studied law at Tel Aviv University and graduated in 1977. There she met her husband, David Hayut, and they have two sons.

She worked at the law firm of former Justice Minister Haim Zadok until 1985, mainly in corporate and commercial law. She later opened a practice with her husband in tort and commercial law. In 1990 she became a judge at the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court, and in 1997 a judge at the Tel Aviv District Court.

She joined the Supreme Court as an acting justice in 2003 and received a permanent appointment in 2004. She chaired the Central Election Committee from 2015 and became Supreme Court President in 2017 under the seniority system. In January 2023 she spoke against the judicial reform plan of Justice Minister Yariv Levin.

She retired in October 2023 on reaching 70. In 2024 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Haifa and was named chair of the Sapir Prize jury.