President Isaac Herzog's path was paved by the generations that came before him. Herzog's father followed in his grandfather's footsteps. When his father, Rabbi Yitzhak Halevi Hertzog heard about the UN resolution determining Jerusalem to not be a part of the State of Israel but an international city in 1949, Herzog, who was already along in years, got dressed and headed out of his home on Jerusalem's Ibn Ezra Street.
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A young boy at the time, I saw him as he ascended the steps of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue in the presence of hundreds of worshippers who had gathered there and proceeded to tear up a copy of the UN resolution. This was his response at a time when he saw they were taking Israel's capital, the eternal city, away from the Jewish state.
Years later, the rabbi's son, Chaim Herzog, addressed the UN General Assembly, his hand gripping a copy of Resolution 3379 that determined "Zionism is racism" and ripped it to pieces.
The son was following in the footsteps of his father, the rabbi. The entire world saw this image of an Israeli representative tearing up a UN resolution, a resolution the world would body would later come to regret and rectify years later. These are the foundations upon which Herzog, who was named after his grandfather, one of Israel's greatest rabbis for generations, the country's first chief rabbi, was raised.
President Isaac Herzog's grandfather, who witnessed the establishment of the state and was able to issue the first orders to the IDF on adhering to mitzvot, composed a prayer for the welfare of the state and prayed for its ministers, a prayer we continue to need to this day.
It was on these prayers that Israel's new president, a former attorney with a rich history of public activity in the Knesset and the government, and who served as the head of the Jewish Agency, was raised.
I speak for the people of Israel who cheer him on and wish him great success today. May we be fortunate that Israel knows peace and prosperity in his term in office and for generations to come.
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