Jacob Turkel

Jacob Turkel was born in 1935 in Tel Aviv

Turkel was born in Tel Aviv in 1935, the only son of religious immigrants from Austria. When he was five, the family moved to Jerusalem, where he attended the Ma'aleh state religious school. He was active in the scouts.

He studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and graduated in 1960. In 1965 he won a prize from Israeli broadcasting for an original radio play he wrote.

After working as a civil lawyer, he became a magistrate judge in Beersheba in 1967 and later a district judge. From 1980 to 1995 he was president of the Beersheba District Court. He served on the Supreme Court from 1995 to 2005, where he wrote many dissenting opinions and also chaired the Central Elections Committee.

In June 2010 the government appointed him to head the commission examining the Gaza flotilla events. From 2010 to 2018 he chaired the advisory committee on senior civil service appointments. He also headed a committee to reform the inheritance law and chaired the EMET Prize committee.

He was married to Miriam, who died in 2018, and they had two daughters and a son who died young. He lived in Jerusalem and died on 29 May 2023.