Tommy Lapid

Tommy Lapid was born in 1931 in Novi Sad

Lapid was born Tomislav Lampel in Novi Sad, then in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, to a Jewish family of Hungarian origin. His father, a lawyer and Zionist activist, was taken by the Nazis in 1944 and murdered in Mauthausen. Lapid and his mother survived the Budapest Ghetto with the help of Raoul Wallenberg and reached Israel in 1948.

After arriving, he served in the IDF. He then studied law and received his law degree in 1957. He married the novelist Shulamit Giladi, and they had 3 children, among them Yair Lapid.

He began as a reporter for the Hungarian-language paper Új Kelet and joined Maariv in 1955, where he held many roles. He founded the women's magazine At in 1967 and headed the Israel Broadcasting Authority from 1979 to 1984. He later appeared on the TV talk show Popolitika and won the Sokolov Award in 1998 for his radio show.

Lapid led Shinui into the Knesset in 1999 on a secular platform. After the party won 15 seats in 2003, he joined Ariel Sharon's government as Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister. Shinui left the coalition in December 2004, and he became Leader of the Opposition.

In 2006 he left Shinui and was appointed chairman of the Yad Vashem advisory board. He died of cancer in 2008.