Israel’s Parliament on 2 June 2021 elected former centre-left politician Isaac Herzog as the country’s President, a role that is largely ceremonial but also meant to promote unity among ethnic and religious groups.
Herzog beat rival candidate Miriam Peretz, an educator and mother of two Israeli infantry officers killed in battle, by a vote of 87 lawmakers to 26.
He will assume the presidency in July 2021, replacing Reuven Rivlin, who is ending his seven-year term.
First elected to Parliament in 2003, Herzog, 60, went on to lead the Labour Party and hold several portfolios in coalition governments.
His most recent public post was as head of the Jewish Agency for Israel, which encourages immigration.
Defeated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a 2015 national ballot, Herzog was picked as President as his former nemesis faced possible toppling by a crossparty alliance of challengers.
Herzog, a lawyer, is the son of the late Israeli President Chaim Herzog, who also served as his country’s ambassador to the United Nations.
He is popularly known by his childhood nickname ‘Bougie’, a combination of
the Hebrew word for doll ‘buba’ and a word for toy used by French children, ‘joujou’.
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