Chaim Herzog (Hebrew: חיים הרצוג‎; 17 September 1918 – 17 April 1997)[1] was an Israeli politician, military officer, lawyer and author who served as the sixth president of Israel between 1983 and 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 and served in the Haganah Jewish paramilitary group during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt.

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.

He emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1935; Herzog subsequently served in the Jewish paramilitary group Haganah during the 1936–39 Arab revolt.

[5] Herzog joined the British Army during the Second World War, operating primarily in Germany as a tank commander in the Royal Armoured Corps.

[7] Herzog participated in the liberation of several Nazi concentration camps as well as identifying a captured German soldier as Heinrich Himmler.

He returned to public life in 1967, when the Six-Day War broke out, as a military commentator for Kol Israel radio news.

[13] After the publication of the editorial, "several letters of support arrived to the Israel delegation at the United Nations", he had become a hero for the common Jewish American citizen.

[14] In the 1981 elections, Herzog entered politics for the first time, winning a seat in the Knesset as a member of the Alignment, the predecessor to the Labor Party.

On 22 March 1983, Herzog was elected by the Knesset to serve as the sixth President of Israel, by a vote of 61 to 57, against Menachem Elon, the candidate of the right and the government coalition.

He assumed office on 5 May 1983 and served two five-year terms (then the maximum permitted by Israeli basic law), retiring from political life in 1993.

DUP councillor Brian Kingston said, "This is a shocking indication of the level of tension and anti-Semitism which currently exists in parts of Belfast.

His brother Yaakov Herzog served as Israel's ambassador to Canada and later as Director General of the Prime Minister's Office.