27 Facts About Chaim Herzog

Chaim Herzog was an Israeli politician, military officer, lawyer and author who served as the sixth president of Israel between 1983 and 1993.

Chaim Herzog retired from the Israel Defence Forces in 1962 with the rank of major-general.

Chaim Herzog entered politics in the 1981 elections, winning a Knesset seat as a member of the Alignment.

Chaim Herzog served for two five-year terms before retiring in 1993.

Chaim Herzog died four years later and was buried on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem.

Chaim Herzog was born on Cliftonpark Avenue in Belfast in Ulster as the son of Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, who was Chief Rabbi of Ireland from 1919 to 1937, and his wife Sarah.

Chaim Herzog studied at Wesley College, Dublin, and was involved with the Federation of Zionist Youth and Habonim Dror, the Labour Zionist movement, during his teenage years.

Chaim Herzog studied at University College, London, and was awarded Bachelor of Laws from the University of London in 1941.

Chaim Herzog joined the British Army during the Second World War, operating primarily in Germany as a tank commander in the Royal Armoured Corps.

Chaim Herzog was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps in 1943.

Chaim Herzog participated in the liberation of several Nazi concentration camps as well as identifying a captured German soldier as Heinrich Himmler.

Chaim Herzog left the British Army in March 1947 as a war substantive captain and was granted the honorary rank of Major.

Chaim Herzog retired from the IDF in 1962 with the rank of major-general.

Chaim Herzog returned to public life in 1967, when the Six-Day War broke out, as a military commentator for Kol Israel radio news.

In 1975, Chaim Herzog was appointed Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, in which capacity he served until 1978.

On 22 March 1983, Chaim Herzog was elected by the Knesset to serve as the sixth President of Israel, by a vote of 61 to 57, against Menachem Elon, the candidate of the right and the government coalition.

Chaim Herzog assumed office on 5 May 1983 and served two five-year terms, retiring from political life in 1993.

Chaim Herzog was noted for pardoning the Shin Bet agent involved in the Kav 300 affair.

In 1985, during his state visit to the Republic of Ireland, Chaim Herzog visited Wesley College, Dublin, opened the Irish Jewish Museum in Dublin, and unveiled a sculpture in honour of his childhood friend, Cearbhall O Dalaigh, former Chief Justice of Ireland and, later, the fifth President of Ireland, in Sneem Culture Park, County Kerry.

Chaim Herzog was an opponent of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, to which he referred to as a nest "of world terror".

Chaim Herzog said the world largely dismissed Israel's warnings that Baghdad was becoming a capital of world terrorism, adding that some Western countries helped Hussein develop into a military power.

President Chaim Herzog reduced the sentences of Menachem Livni, Uzi Sharbaf and Shaul Nir, members of the Jewish Underground, who were sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1984 murder of four Palestinians in the West Bank town of Hebron.

Chaim Herzog reduced the sentences, first to 24 years, then to 15 years, and in 1989, to 10 years, which enabled the men to be released two years later on good behaviour.

Chaim Herzog died on 17 April 1997 in Tel Aviv, from heart failure caused by pneumonia, at the age of 78.

Chaim Herzog's father was Yitzhak HaLevi Chaim Herzog, chief rabbi of Ireland and later Israel.

Chaim Herzog's brother-in-law was diplomat Abba Eban, their wives being sisters.

Chaim Herzog had four children, including Isaac Herzog, a politician who was the chairman of the Israeli Labor Party and chairman of the Jewish Agency and is President of Israel, the first son of a president to serve as such.