Tommy Lapid

Tommy Lapid
Lapid reporting from the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961
Date of birth	27 December 1931
Place of birth	Novi Sad, Yugoslavia
Year of aliyah	1948
Date of death	1 June 2008(2008-06-01) (aged 76)
Place of death	Tel Aviv, Israel
Knessets	15, 16
Faction represented in Knesset
1999–2006	Shinui
2006	Secular Faction
Ministerial roles
2003–2004	Deputy Prime Minister
2003–2004	Minister of Justice
Other roles
2005	Leader of the Opposition

Yosef (Joseph) "Tommy" Lapid (Hebrew: יוסף "טומי" לפיד‎, born as Tomislav Lampel (Serbian Cyrillic: Томислав Лампел); 27 December 1931 – 1 June 2008) was a Serbian-born Israeli radio and television presenter, playwright, journalist, politician and government minister known for his sharp tongue and acerbic wit. Lapid headed the secular-liberal Shinui party from 1999 to 2006. He fiercely opposed the ultra-Orthodox political parties and actively sought to exclude any religious observance from the legal structure of the Israeli State.

Lapid was born in Novi Sad, Serbia (then- Kingdom of Yugoslavia), to a family of Hungarian Jewish descent. His family was seized by the Nazis and deported to the Budapest Ghetto. His father was deported to a concentration camp, where he was murdered. Lapid and his mother were rescued by Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest. They survived the war and moved to Israel in 1948 where he worked at the Hungarian language Israeli paper Uj Kelet with Rudolf Kasztner. After serving as a radio operator in the Israel Defense Forces between 1950 and 1953, Lapid graduated with a law degree from Tel Aviv University in 1957. He was married to Shulamit Lapid, an acclaimed novelist. They had three children. Their son, Yair Lapid, is the chairman of Yesh Atid party, which turned second biggest party in the 2013 Israeli elections, and was a columnist and television host. Their oldest daughter, Michal, was killed in a car accident.