Dudu Topaz

David Topaz Goldenberg was born in Haifa in 1946, the son of actor and broadcaster Eliyahu Goldenberg.[1][2] His father was a prominent actor in Israel’s early years, and Topaz later recalled wanting to follow him onto the stage.[2] Eliyahu Goldenberg lived from 1909 to 1976; his surviving archival collection is small and contains material in Hebrew and Polish.[7]

The family’s connection to performance also appears in a memorial-book recollection of Eliyahu Goldenberg giving an artistic performance in Yiddish and Polish at a ball in the Grynboim family’s cinema hall.[8] Proceeds from the event helped purchase the community’s club that same year.[8]

Topaz served in the Israel Defense Forces’ Gadna entertainment troupe, where Dudu Dotan was his commander, and subsequently studied acting in London.[2] After returning to Israel, he performed in theater in Haifa and elsewhere, including appearances on stage with his father.[2]

In the 1970s, Topaz became known through the humorous radio program Latzon Nofel Latzon, appearing alongside Dudu Dotan and Avshalom Kor.[2] His childhood friend Menny Pe’er helped him obtain an opportunity at Channel One, where his early work included supporting appearances on game shows produced at the television center in Romema and on educational television.[2] His first television role was as an English teacher on educational television.[3]

Topaz’s television breakthrough came with the game show Sachek Ota, broadcast from 1980 to 1983 and co-hosted with Yigal Shilon.[2][3] The program, based on the American format Pyramid, received the David’s Violin award.[2][3] His other Channel One game shows included Ten Kav, Tze Mizeh, and Zeh Ma Yesh.[2] He later worked in satirical programs and co-hosted the weekend program Sofshavua on Channel One.[2][3]

After his suspension from television during the 1981 election controversy, Topaz remained outside the media for three years and returned with Plitat Peh (Slip of the Tongue).[3] The successful show was followed by Bli Heshbon, which featured the well-known “Moshe and the Orangada” sketch written by Menachem Zilberman, as well as Tzura Lanu and Tipul Nimratz.[2][3] Topaz also wrote the screenplay for and acted in the partly autobiographical film Tel Aviv–Los Angeles.[3]

His work during this period included the late-night Army Radio program Tziporei Layla Meshahachot and television programs such as Dudu Mesaper Legolo and Sofshavua.[3] During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he moved among roles on several Israeli channels.[3]

In 1993, Topaz joined Keshet, a franchisee of the new Channel 2, and began presenting Reshut Habidur (The Entertainment Authority).[2] The program later became HaRishon BeBidur (The First in Entertainment) and gave airtime to emerging performers while featuring audience challenges and prizes.[2][3]

The program’s most conspicuous ratings success came with a 1996 episode in which Topaz promised that aliens would land in the studio.[2] The supposed alien turned out to be entertainer Tzipi Shavit in costume, and the episode drew a 51% audience share.[2] A separate retrospective described the program’s peak audience of about 50% as a national ratings record that remained unbroken at the time.[3]

In late 2004, Keshet removed HaRishon BeBidur from the air while preparing for a Channel 2 franchise tender.[2] Topaz moved to Reshet for HaKol Zaz and later to Channel 10 for HaKol Eser; neither program matched the ratings of his earlier work.[2]

In 2005, Topaz wrote Moshe, a modern satirical musical interpretation of the Exodus story.[3] His son Omer performed in the production, which was canceled after a short run following harsh reviews.[3]

After HaKol Eser, Topaz did not return to regular television hosting.[3] His later work included the HOT telenovela Bubot, a personal blog on Tapuz, and the children’s book Halomot Paz.[2]

Topaz’s television career included the David’s Violin award for Sachek Ota and the record-level audience achieved by HaRishon BeBidur.[2][3] His Channel 2 program gave airtime to emerging performers and combined entertainment with audience challenges and prizes.[3]

His comedy was included in the 2008 Hebrew-language commercial recording אותי זה מצחיק! הקטעים והמערכונים הבלתי נשכחים, alongside sketches performed by Shike Opir, Rivka Michaeli, Yossi Banai, Hanna Laslo, and Yair Nitzani.[9] The collection comprises two CDs with a cataloged total duration of approximately 280 minutes.[9]

Menachem Begin’s response to Topaz is also included among three speeches presented to visitors in a speech room at the Menachem Begin Museum.[10]

During the 1981 election campaign, Topaz used the derogatory term “chahchahim” for Jews of Mizrahi background at an Alignment rally.[2][3] Menachem Begin publicly rebuked the remark.[2][3] Topaz was suspended from television and remained outside the media for three years; in his comeback show Plitat Peh, he presented the speech as having been misunderstood.[3]

In 1995, Topaz broke television critic Meir Shnitzer’s glasses after an unfavorable review.[2] Shnitzer filed a police complaint and sued, and Topaz was ordered to pay 62,000 shekels in compensation.[2] During a live interview in 2002, Topaz bit visiting telenovela star Natalia Oreiro on the arm; although she did not file a complaint, viewers complained to the Second Authority for Television and Radio.[2] He responded to protests by women’s organizations with the remark, “Maybe they want a bite too?”[2] Two sexual-harassment investigation files opened against him were closed by prosecutors in June 2003 for insufficient evidence, with the prosecution also citing uncertainty about criminal intent.[11]

Topaz was arrested on May 31, 2009, in connection with attacks on television executives Avi Nir and Shira Margalit and entertainment agent Boaz Ben-Zion.[1][2] The subsequent indictment alleged that, after media figures rejected his proposals, he sought revenge and recruited others to carry out attacks.[1]

On June 18, prosecutors filed an indictment charging conspiracy to commit a crime, aggravated assault, and obstruction of justice.[1][4] Besides the attacks on Nir, Margalit, and Ben-Zion, the indictment alleged plans against television personalities Tzvika Hadar, Erez Tal, and Avri Gilad and newspaper editor Amos Regev.[4] Prosecutors also alleged a plot against Topaz’s former wife and her husband, which he denied.[12] Topaz confessed to hiring Daniel Zanko as an intermediary in the assault on Nir and apologized in court to the three people who had been hurt.[12] His lawyers argued that his detailed confessions demonstrated that he had not intended to obstruct the investigation.[4] The proceedings against him did not reach a verdict before his death.[6]

During detention, Topaz attempted suicide by injecting himself with an insulin overdose, received treatment at Wolfson Medical Center, and was placed on suicide watch.[12] He died by suicide at age 62 on August 20, 2009, in the Nitzan detention facility in Ramla.[5][13] A judicial inquiry determined that his death was unassisted and found no wrongdoing by detention-center personnel, describing the monitoring measures as unprecedented in scope.[5] The inquiry nevertheless identified the visible electrical cables in the cell as an overlooked risk and said lessons from earlier prison suicides should have been drawn sooner.[5] A coded note to his brother apologized and referred to his children, while a conversation recorded the evening before his death showed that Topaz had denied having an immediate suicidal intention.[5]

In 2017, the state agreed to a 1.2-million-shekel settlement with Topaz’s family over claims concerning his death, without admitting responsibility.[14] His brother and sons had sought a combined 13.7 million shekels in two suits; the settlement was submitted for final court approval.[14] Other participants in the attacks received prison sentences, including Zanko, whose sentence was increased by the Supreme Court to five years; those outcomes were separate from the unfinished criminal proceedings against Topaz.[6]