Chaim Herzog

Chaim Herzog (Hebrew: חַיִּים הֶרְצוֹג‎; 17 September 1918 – 17 April 1997) was an Irish-Israeli politician, military officer, lawyer and author who served as President of Israel from 1983 to 1993. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Dublin, the son of Ireland's Chief Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1935. He served in the Haganah Jewish paramilitary group during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt and in the British Army during World War II. Following the end of the British Mandate and Israel's Declaration of Independence in 1948, he served in the Israel Defense Forces and fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. He remained in the Israeli military as an officer following the war until retiring in 1962 with the rank of major-general.

After leaving the military, Herzog managed an industrial conglomerate and co-founded the Herzog, Fox & Ne'eman law firm, which would become one of Israel's largest law firms. Between 1975 and 1978 he served as Israel's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, in which capacity he denounced UN General Assembly Resolution 3379—the "Zionism is Racism" resolution—and symbolically tore it up before the assembly. Herzog entered politics in the 1981 elections, winning a Knesset seat as a member of the Alignment. Two years later, in March 1983, he was elected to the largely ceremonial role of President. He served for two five-year terms before retiring in 1993. He died four years later and was buried on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem.

His son Isaac Herzog, who between 2013 and 2017 led the Israeli Labor Party and was the parliamentary Opposition in the Knesset, is the incumbent President of Israel. The pair are the first father and son to have served as the nation's president.