Isaac Herzog was born in Israel in 1960, and is an attorney by profession. Before entering his new position at The Jewish Agency, Mr. Herzog had been a member of Knesset (Israel’s parliament) since 2003. He had been the Chairman of Israel’s Labor Party since 2013, as well as the Knesset Opposition Leader.
In 2015, Mr. Herzog was a front-runner to win the election for Israel’s Prime Minister. He led the alliance between the Labor Party and the Hatnua Party to create Israel’s largest center-left political party, and was the leading candidate to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the national elections.
In the past 15 years, Mr. Herzog has held several ministerial posts: Minister of Housing and Construction; Minister of Tourism; Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Society and the Fight Against Anti-Semitism; and Minister of Welfare and Social Services. He also served as Government Secretary and as the Israel Government Coordinator for the provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza in 2008-2009.
Before entering politics, Mr. Herzog was a senior partner at the law firm of Herzog, Fox & Ne’eman. He lives in Tel Aviv with his wife, Michal. They have three sons.
- Isaac Herzog lived in New York as a teenager when his father served as Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations. He studied at Ramaz High School (a well-known Jewish day school) and took courses at Cornell and New York University.
- Upon returning to Israel, Mr. Herzog served as an officer in the elite Unit 8200 of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Intelligence Corps.
- Mr. Herzog’s father was the sixth President of Israel; his grandfather was Israel’s first Chief Rabbi; his mother is the founder of the Council for a Beautiful Israel environmental organization; and his grandmother founded the World Emunah religious-Zionist organization.