The Great Tommy Lapid died this weekend
Tommy Lapid was a serial fulfiller of dreams, so it is no surprise that he radiated so much self-confidence and happiness. As a child he dreamed of being a jurist, journalist and community leader like his father, and he fulfilled each one of those desires to an even greater extent than he could have dared hope. He wasn’t just a journalist; he was a popular media star. He wasn’t just a jurist; he was the justice minister of the State of Israel. And he wasn’t just a community leader; he was the deputy prime minister of Israel and one of the most influential people in Israeli politics and public discourse.
After his father was taken from him by the Gestapo before his very eyes, after his stable and bourgeois home was destroyed overnight, Tommy dreamed of building a home and having a family - and, indeed, he became the head of a loving, warm, close-knit family that is rightly considered part of the Israeli aristocracy. Not necessarily moneyed aristocracy, but an aristocracy of literary and media creativity.