Supreme Court president Hayut retires, hoping for ‘better days’

Stepping down on Monday, Supreme Court President Justice Esther Hayut called on her associates in the judicial authority, and the nation at large, not to give up hope for better times in the face of the conflict currently raging around Israel’s borders.

Hayut was appointed to serve as a permanent justice on the Supreme Court in 2004 and has served as Supreme Court president since 2017. She is retiring having reached the age of 70, the mandatory age of retirement for judges, after 33 years in the judiciary, having been appointed a judge on the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court in 1990.

Since Justice Minister Yariv Levin has refused to convene the Judicial Selection Committee, no new president can be chosen, so Deputy President Justice Uzi Vogelman will become acting president on Tuesday.

The traditional retirement ceremony held for justices on the Supreme Court was canceled because of the ongoing war.

“We are in one of the most difficult periods in the history of the country. We are burying our dead and bandaging our wounds, and praying for the speedy return of all the captives and the missing to their families,” wrote Hayut in a letter addressed to the judges and employees of the judicial authority.

She noted pointedly that no successor had been appointed for her “in contrast to the presidents before me,” but said that she was certain the judicial authority was in “excellent hands” and that all its members would continue to do their jobs “with the utmost dedication and professionalism” under Vogelman’s stewardship.

Concluding her letter, the outgoing president cited a poem published in 2016 by Israeli poet Anadad Eldan, a member of Kibbutz Be’eri, called “On the walls of Be’eri,” reflecting his feelings about the death of his daughter.

The poem has taken on special poignancy in the wake of the October 7 Hamas terror assault and the atrocities it committed at Be’eri in particular.

“There is an hour of billowing darkness, yet there is dawn and light,” the poem concludes.

“Surely this is an hour of billowing darkness, but as Anadad Eldan wrote there is dawn and light, and we must not give up hope for other days, better than these,” wrote Hayut.

“Hope is the belief that together we can change things for the better,” she continued, citing the late chief rabbi of the UK, Jonathan Sacks.

“Let us change things for the better. Let us protect our togetherness with all our strength.”

President Isaac Herzog praised Hayut, saying she had proved herself “a woman of principles and integrity” throughout her life and “a person of courage, leadership and great sensitivity to all.”

Noting that his father president Chaim Herzog had originally sworn Hayut in as a judge in 1990, Herzog thanked Hayut on behalf of the State of Israel for her leadership of the judiciary “and her enormous contribution to the world of law.”

Levin, with whom Hayut has clashed dramatically since he launched his judicial overhaul program in January, called Hayut and thanked the retiring president “from the bottom of his heart for her great contribution to the justice system and the State of Israel and for the joint work in recent months.”

A statement to the press by Levin’s office said the minister “wishes president Hayut great success” for her future endeavors.

Levin also spoke with Vogelman and agreed to meet in the coming days.