Israel's offspring
By Gil Hoffman

Rabbi Isaac Halevy Herzog (1888-1959)
Born in Poland and raised in England, Herzog served as rabbi in Belfast from 1916 to 1919 and Dublin until 1936. He became chief rabbi of Ireland in 1921. Herzog succeeded Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook as Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine in 1936, a position he held until 1959. As chief rabbi, he published numerous works of Halacha and talmudic research and traveled throughout Europe, raising support for Jewish claims to the Holy Land and trying to rescue Jews. Heichal Shlomo, seat of the Chief Rabbinate, was built as his initiative.

Herzog had two children and seven grandchildren
Herzog had two sons. Chaim Herzog served as an intelligence officer in the British army in World War II, was head of IDF Military Intelligence, was the first governor of Jerusalem and the West Bank, ambassador to the United Nations, and had a brief term in the Knesset before becoming president from 1983 to 1993.

Chaim Herzog's widow, Aura, leads the Council for a Beautiful Israel and is the sister of Susie Eban, wife of former foreign minister Abba Eban. Chaim and Aura have four children: Joel is a businessman who lives in Geneva, and is married to the daughter of Nissim Gaon, the head of the Sephardi World Federation. Joel was jailed in France in 1997 for his role in a bribery and corruption scandal. Brig.-Gen. Michael is on the team negotiating with the Palestinians and is in the planning division of the IDF. Isaac is Prime Minister Ehud Barak's cabinet secretary and is currently being investigated in the Knesset non-profit organizations scandal. Ronit Bronsky is a psychologist in Israel.

The rabbi's younger son, Dr. Ya'acov Herzog, was ambassador to Canada, adviser to prime ministers Ben-Gurion, Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir, director-general of the Prime Minister's Office and also an ordained rabbi. He has two daughters and a son. Shira Herzog, who lives in Toronto, is one of the directors of the Kahanoff Foundation in Canada. The foundation has been linked to the current non-profit organizations scandal. She is also a columnist for The Canadian Jewish News. Elli is a Bible expert in Israel, and Yitzhak is a non-practicing lawyer studying for a post-graduate degree in the US.

David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973)
Theodor Herzl (1860-1904)
Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952)
Menachem Begin (1913-1992)
Rabbi Isaac Halevy Herzog (1888-1959)