Ex-jurist Tzvi Tal dies at 94
“There are judges in Jerusalem,” proclaimed Prime Minister Menachem Begin, whose words are frequently quoted in disputes involving the judiciary.
Tzvi Tal, who passed away on Tuesday at age 94, was one of those judges. He not only worked in Jerusalem, but he also lived in Jerusalem and was best known for being one of the panel of judges who in 1988 presided over the Demjanjuk case in which John Demjanjuk, a former Nazi camp guard was tried for allegedly being Ivan the Terrible, a notoriously merciless camp guard at the Treblinka death camp.
Together with Judges Dov Levin and Dalia Dorner, Tal sentenced Demjanjuk to death, but the sentence was subsequently overturned on appeal when the defendant claimed that there was no absolute proof that he was Ivan the Terrible. Nonetheless, Tal and Dorner remained convinced that he was, and before his death, Demjanjuk was again tried and convicted – this time by a German court, as an accessory, to the murder of thousands of people at Sobibor. He was given a mild sentence of only five years in prison.
Tal was better known for heading the Tal Commission to which he was appointed by then-prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak in 1998 to look into the matter of exemptions and deferments from army service for yeshiva students.
That appointment came two years after Tal had retired from the bench.
Tal was born to a Hassidic family in Poland. When he was eight years old, the family took up residence in the Land of Israel.
Tal was sent to the Bnei Akiva yeshiva in Kfar Haroeh, where he also served as a youth leader. He later studied law at The Hebrew University after which he spent ten years in private practice.
When he was offered the opportunity to be a judge, he was initially reluctant and consulted with his rabbis before agreeing to an appointment to the Jerusalem District Court in 1978.
In 1994, following his elevation to the High Court of Justice, he was referred to as the religious judge, an epithet that annoyed him. Being religious is an insufficient reason to deserve a seat in the High Court, he used to
say but acknowledged the importance of having the judges in the court come from diverse backgrounds.
In 1997, Tal reached mandatory retirement age, which is 70 for a judge. Two years later, he was appointed by Barak to head the Tal Commission.
ALTHOUGH YESHIVA students were expected to join the army at some stage, the vast majority found a way out, and few were forced to don the khaki uniform. This created a lot of animosity between the ultrareligious and the nonreligious sectors of society. The religious Zionists regarded army service as a privilege.
In addition to Tal, the other members on the commission were former cabinet secretary Isaac Herzog, attorney Jacob Weinroth, then-deputy director-general of the Defense Ministry Haim Israeli, Secretary of the Committee for Yeshivot in the Land of Israel Rabbi Asher Tenenboim, former head of the IDF’s Manpower Directorate Moshe Nativ, former mayor of Hadera and former Police Maj.-Gen. Israel Sadan, deputy legal adviser to the defense system Rachel Stuvitzky, former mayor of Bnei Brak Rabbi Mordechai Kerlitz, and then-deputy attorney general Yehoshua Shufman. The committee presented its report in April 2000, and its recommendations which allowed yeshiva students a deferment till age 22, formed the basis of legislation which became known as the Tal Law.
In July 2002 an expanded and updated version of the Tal Law was passed by the Knesset, and a press conference was held in Tel Aviv, to explain the actual legislation and what had motivated it.
Gil Hoffman, the senior political correspondent of The Jerusalem Post, who was then a rookie reporter, was sent to cover the press conference because neither the journalist reporting on religious affairs nor the one reporting on law-related matters were available.
At the time, Hoffman’s command of Hebrew was not what it is today, and he had trouble deciphering the lengthy report with its legal jargon. He asked an English speaker on the committee to help him but was met with a brusque refusal, and an excuse that the person was too busy – but not too busy it transpired, to give a television interview that was requested soon afterward.
Somewhat disheartened, Hoffman left and tried to find a taxi to take him back to Jerusalem. When he saw one that had a sign indicating that it was going to Jerusalem, he wanted to get inside but the driver told him that it was already taken. There was a passenger keeping the seat warm for someone else, and when that someone showed up, Hoffman asked if they could share the cab as both were bound for Jerusalem. The man immediately agreed, and only then did Hoffman realize that he was sharing a cab with Tal. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Taking his courage into his hands, Hoffman explained his problem, and Tal went through the report point by point speaking in easy Hebrew, and English when necessary, all the way back to Jerusalem. “He was so kind and patient,” said Hoffman. “I’ll never forget him.”
THE LAW, which had been adopted by the Knesset, was appealed against and struck down by the High Court, on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. Tal was not angry, but he was disappointed that all the time and work that gone into investigating the situation and making recommendations had been near enough to pointless. The Tal Law, which had held the promise of important reforms, had been reduced to a fig leaf, he said. It had been a failed exercise because, according to Tal, neither the army, nor the haredim, nor the Government were interested in its implementation.
In an interview that he gave to KAN Reshet Bet some 18 months ago, Tal was asked whether he thought that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should resign in view of the corruption charges against him.
Tal’s response was that if there was the slightest shred of indefensible evidence against Netanyahu or anyone in a public service position, they should step down, but it really depended on how the investigation had been carried out and whether the police and the prosecution had adhered to the letter of the law.
When asked whether he still had faith in Israel’s justice system and its legal network, Tal’s response was that he didn’t know.
Tal and his wife Hannah were parents to six children, one of whom, Moshe, was killed in the line of duty in the Yom Kippur War.
Regrets over Tal’s passing were expressed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, who is a former justice minister, retired Supreme Court judge Elyakim Rubinstein and Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sa’ar praised Tal as a man of conscience. Shaked recalled him as a person who was always willing to listen; Rubinstein lauded his wisdom and called him a great jurist and Netanyahu spoke of Tal’s great contribution to society and to justice. Netanyahu also noted that Tal never permitted his status to encroach on his modesty, his natural friendliness and his independence of thought.
President Reuven Rivlin, who is distantly related to the Tal family, recalled that Tal had served in the Irgun during the British Mandate period. He said that Tal had done a great deal for Israel, and had never been afraid to express a minority point of view.
Some years prior to Rivlin launching his flagship project of national unity, Tal had expressed the wish that the diverse sectors of Israel’s population would be more tolerant of each other and less militant against each other.
Tal was laid to rest on Tuesday evening at the Har Hamenuhot cemetery in Givat Shaul of Jerusalem. Shiva is being held at 1 Broyer Street, Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem.