Yitzchak Herzog was elected as Israel’s eleventh president on Wednesday, winning 87 votes of the Knesset’s 120 MKs in a secret ballot.

Herzog soundly defeated Miriam Peretz, a much admired and beloved Israel Prize winner, educator, and social activist who lost two sons in the army and used her adversity to help others. Herzog was widely expected to win due to his many connections in the political world.

Herzog, 60, will succeed President Reuven Rivlin at the end of his seven-year term on July 9.

Herzog, the son of former Israeli president Chaim Herzog, who was Israel’s sixth president from 1983-1993, will be the first son of a president to serve as president. He is the grandson of Rav Yitzchak HaLevi Herzog, the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland (1922-1935) and the first Chief Rabbi of Israel (1936-1959). Herzog’s uncle, Abba Eban, was Israel’s first foreign minister and ambassador to the United Nations and the United States.

Herzog is a lawyer by profession and is currently the chairman of the Jewish Agency, a nonprofit that works with the government to promote immigration to Israel. He was the chairman of the Labor party and later the Zionist Union party between 2013 and 2017. After running unsuccessfully against Netanyahu in 2013, he served as leader of the opposition until 2018. Earlier, he filled several ministerial posts between 2005 and 2011.

Although Herzog was born in Tel Aviv, he attended high school in the US, when his father served as Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations. Herzog lived in New York and attended the Ramaz School and also attended Cornell and New York University while still in high school.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)