Yitzhak Raveh

Yitzhak Raveh was born in 1906 in Aurich

Raveh was born Franz Reuss in Aurich, Germany, the youngest of 6 children of Heinrich and Selma Reuss. His father was a teacher and Hebrew scholar. In 1908 the family moved to Berlin, where he grew up.

He studied law at the University of Berlin and finished his degree in 1927. He earned a doctorate in law in 1929 at the University of Halle. From 1931 to 1933 he served as a judge in Berlin.

When the Nazis came to power, he resigned in March 1933 and moved with his wife Batya to the British mandate of Palestine. He opened a law office focused on land law in 1939 and headed land registration in 1948. In 1952 he became a judge of the Tel Aviv District Court and took the name Yitzhak Raveh.

In 1961 he joined the panel of judges in the Eichmann trial, with Moshe Landau and Benjamin Halevi. His questions led Eichmann to acknowledge moral responsibility. From 1965 to 1969 he headed a public committee on tenant protection laws, which formed the basis of a 1972 law.

He retired from the court in 1976 and in the 1980s chaired an appeals committee on land appreciation tax. His wife died in 1983. He died in 1989 and was survived by 2 daughters.