In an attempt to move beyond the clichéd, some things you may not know about Israel’s 11th president
Electing an Israeli political princeling like soon-to-be President Yitzchak Hertzog is all well and good, but makes for boring copy. Everyone knows, for example, that “Bougie’s” grandfather was Israel’s first Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Rav Yitzchak Eizik Herzog, and that father Chaim was a general and then president. So in an attempt to move beyond the clichéd, here are some lesser-known facts about Israel’s 11th president:
1. It’s a fair bet that when next meeting with rabbinic delegations, as the president does, the Herzog yichus will come up. But if my conversation last year with the president-elect is anything to go by, Bougie will deftly move the conversation beyond his grandfather to his great-grandfather.
“Have you heard of Rav Shmuel Yitzchak Hillman?” he asked me.
A talmid of Volozhin, Rav Hillman received semichah from the Aderes and the Ridvaz, among others. He then went on to become a rabbi in Glasgow, Scotland, dayan in London, father-in-law of Rav Herzog, and founder of a high-achieving Israeli family.
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