Dudu Topaz (Hebrew: דודו טופז; September 20, 1946 – August 20, 2009) (born David Goldenberg) was an Israeli TV personality, comedian, actor, screenwriter, playwright, author and radio and television host.
Topaz was a television host in the Israeli public TV Channel 1 in the eighties and early nineties, as well as running some successful sketch comedy shows on stage.
In 1981, Topaz gained notoriety for comments he made during an Israeli Labor Party political rally in Tel Aviv's Malchei Yisrael Square (later renamed Rabin Square) when he said: "It's a pleasure to see the crowd here, and it's a pleasure to see that there are no chahchahim (derogatory slang word alluding to Israeli Jews of Middle Eastern background) who ruin election gatherings.
(headquarters of the rival Likud party)[3] In May 2009, Topaz was arrested on suspicion of ordering, organizing and paying for a series of attacks on top-level TV executives Avi Nir and Shira Margalit and showbiz agent Boaz Ben-Zion.
Topaz was also accused of planning attacks against television figures Zvika Hadar, Erez Tal, and Avri Gilad, Israel Hayom editor-in-chief Amos Regev, his ex-wife Roni Chen, and her husband Haim Zenati,[5] as well as a second assault against Ben-Zion after judging that the first had not been severe enough.
[8] He attempted suicide in his prison cell at the Abu Kabir Detention Center in Tel Aviv on July 3, 2009, after taking an overdose of insulin, used to control his diabetes.
[10] A second suicide attempt on August 20, 2009, was fatal, and at approximately 7:00 AM Topaz was found by a warden hanging in a shower (the only place without video surveillance) in the Nitzan Detention Center in Ramla.