Retired Justice Moshe Beisky dies at 88 after months of illness

Retired Supreme Court Justice Moshe Beisky died on Tuesday, after months of illness. He was 86 years old.

He will be laid to rest Wednesday afternoon at the Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv.

Beisky served as a judge for 31 years, including 12 years as a Supreme Court justice. He also served as the president of the Zionist Supreme Court, and in 1985 headed the governmental panel of inquiry into regulation of bank stocks.

Beisky was born in 1921 in Dzialoszyce, Poland and was educated in a religious school. He was also a member of the Zionist youth movement in Krakow and at age 21 immigrated to Israel. He fought for the Israel Defense Forces during the 1948 War of Independence and finished his service with the rank of captain.

He studied international law at the Sorbonne in Paris and received a doctorate of law after concluding a thesis on human rights as sourced in the bible.

In 1960, Beisky was appointed as a judge in the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court and after eight years was promoted to the Tel Aviv District Court. In 1979, he was appointed to the Supreme Court and served there until his retirement in 1991.

Beisky was an instructor in the law faculties at Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University. He was also active in Yad Vashem's public institutions, serving as chairman of the righteous gentiles council, as a member of the Yad Vashem Council, as president of the Zionist Supreme Court and as chairman of the Mesua Institute for Holocaust studies.