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It must be asked: What qualities does he display now, halfway through his seven-year term? How does he envisage his legacy, compared to that of other Herzogs?
By TOVA HERZL JANUARY 23, 2025 01:53
PRESIDENT ISAAC HERZOG places a note in the Western Wall last Sunday, with a prayer for the well-being of the three hostages returning to freedom later in the day, the return of all hostages, military success, a recovery for all those injured, and unity.
(photo credit: AMOS BEN GERSHOM/GPO)
Have you ever thought about what it is like to share a name with a street? We Herzls have it relatively simple – the tragic fate of Theodor Herzl’s offspring is well known, and therefore, distant relatives of the founder of political Zionism are not expected to uphold any standard but are merely asked about the connection (in my case – seven or eight times removed).
But being “Herzog” is a challenge. In Jerusalem, we have Herzog Street (named for the grandfather of our current president), Herzog Medical Center (grandmother), and a branch of Herzog College (uncle).
How does President Isaac Herzog feel about this prominent commemoration of his relatives, who all displayed public courage even when it was inconvenient, even as he abides by the rules of his ceremonial role, while everything around us is threatened?
Thus, his rubber-stamp speech in favor of the hostage deal came only after the mediators announced that the parties had agreed, and not in May, many deaths ago when a very similar deal longed for a redeemer.
Incidentally, due to a cornucopia of Herzogs, the country’s capital did not commemorate the father of the current president, Chaim Herzog, by his name but rather as Sderot Hanassi Hashishi – Sixth President Boulevard. Disclosure – I worked in his bureau for about a year and learned much from him and his wife, Aura, a perfect hostess.
Our president was named for his grandfather, who was the chief rabbi of Palestine and, after its establishment in 1948, of Israel. Within six months of assuming his position in 1937, during the Arab Revolt, he and his Sephardi colleague issued at least two warnings to Jews against taking revenge on Arabs.
In his previous positions, President Herzog spoke up against hilltop youth, illegal settlements, and acts of revenge. But I have found no evidence of him saying anything about them since assuming the highest office, despite their rapid growth.
It took the grandson more than a year to call for a national commission of inquiry to investigate October 7, the greatest catastrophe in Israel’s history – although such a commission enjoys overwhelming public support.
The chief Rabbi’s wife, Sarah, gave her name to a mental hospital, her life’s work. When women were generally viewed in Orthodox circles as being under the patronage of their husbands, she supported women’s independence.
She understood that one cannot please everyone all the time – there can be no compromise between support of such independence or opposition to it, or between those who will subjugate the judiciary to the whims of politicians and those who object to this control.
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Herzog College is named for their younger son, Rabbi Dr. Yaakov Herzog. Before his death at 51, he was director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office and Israel’s ambassador to Canada.
There he conducted an open debate with Arnold Toynbee, several days after the prominent historian and philosopher deemed Judaism a fossil and compared some of Israel’s actions to Nazis.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry did not approve the debate and many in Israel and among Canadian Jewry were opposed to it – it reminded them of encounters with church leaders during the Middle Ages, which always turned out badly for the Jews.
This is why Herzog opened his remarks by saying that he is debating in his personal capacity – the situation demanded that he remove the constrictions of his official mantle, in order to take action and make a difference. The debate was broadcast widely, Herzog is considered to have won, and Toynbee moderated some of his opinions.
To their credit and unlike cabinet members, President Herzog and his wife, Michal, regularly visit families of the fallen and meet hostage families, displaying humaneness and empathy.
Nevertheless, it must be asked: What qualities does he display now, halfway through his seven-year term? What goes through his mind when he pages through a family album? How does he envisage his legacy, compared to that of other Herzogs?
What does he imagine future historians will write about him; what will a pedestrian walking through President Isaac Herzog Street think? How will his silence and passivity be viewed? Do they prevent the country’s rapid deterioration, or enable it? What is his contribution to the future of the Zionist enterprise, which began with Theodor Herzl and is now facing an unprecedented challenge?
The writer was Israel’s first ambassador to the Baltic states after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, ambassador to South Africa, and congressional liaison officer at the embassy in Washington. She is a graduate of Israel’s National Defense College.
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