הרב יצחק אייזיק הלוי הרצוג

Rav Yitzchak Isaac HaLevi Herzog (28 Kislev 5649/1888–19 Tammuz 5719/1959) was the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael, and then of the State of Israel, from 5697/1936 until his petirah, after serving as chief rabbi of Ireland. Born in Lomza, he was raised in Leeds and later in Paris, where his father, Rav Yoel Leib HaLevi Herzog, held rabbanut; his Torah came largely from his father, and as a young man he sent unsigned kuntresim of chiddushim to the gedolim of Eastern Europe. He received semichah in 5668/1908 from Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk and the Ridvaz, among others. Alongside his learning he took university degrees in mathematics and languages; his doctorate at the University of London dealt with identifying the techelet, a subject he researched all his life.

He served as rav of Belfast from 1915 and of Dublin from 1919, and from 5685/1925 as chief rabbi of Ireland, where he succeeded in turning back an attempt to outlaw shechitah. Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook urged him to come to Eretz Yisrael, and after Rav Kook’s petirah he was elected on 17 Kislev 5697/1936 to succeed him as Ashkenazi chief rabbi, with the support of the Chazon Ish. When the British White Paper of 1939 shut the gates of the Land to Jewish immigration, he tore it in two before the people at the Churva shul in Yerushalayim. In 5700/1940 he founded the Vaad HaYeshivot of Eretz Yisrael and stood at its head.

Through the war years he labored for rescue: in 1941 he traveled to America and pressed President Roosevelt to save Jews and to bomb the death camps, and he returned to Eretz Yisrael despite warnings of invasion, answering that the nevi’im foretold two churbanot and no third. In 5706/1946 he crossed Europe to recover Jewish children hidden in monasteries during the holocaust; turned away by the Pope, he and his helpers located the children themselves, and more than five hundred reached Eretz Yisrael on the train that came to be called the Herzog train.

His works include the responsa Heichal Yitzchak, Ketavim uPesakim, Torat HaOhel, and Techukah leYisrael al pi HaTorah on halachah and the state, beside his English The Main Institutions of Jewish Law. With the Rishon LeTzion Rav Ben-Tzion Meir Chai Uziel he composed the tefillah for the welfare of the state, and in 5718/1958 he received the Israel Prize in Torah literature. On Fridays his home gathered the gedolim of Yerushalayim — Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, Rav Yechezkel Abramsky, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, and Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv among them. He founded the institute known today as Yad HaRav Herzog, publisher of the Encyclopedia Talmudit; he was niftar on 19 Tammuz 5719/1959 and rests in the Sanhedria cemetery in Yerushalayim.

His son and later his grandson each served as President of the State of Israel – Chaim Herzog (1983-93) and President Isaac (Bougie) Herzog (2021- ).