Aura Herzog (1924-2022) Israeli Social Activist

Aura Herzog (1924-2022) Israeli Social Activist First Lady of Israel dies at 10 January 2022 ( 97 years)

Name	Aura Herzog
Age	97 Years
Birth	24 December 1924
Birthplace	Ismailia, Egypt
Death	10 January 2022
Deathplace
Profession	First Lady of Israel
Burial	Specifically: Will be buried at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem
Nationality	Israeli

Aura Herzog Israeli Social Activist (1924-2022)

She was the First Lady of Israel from May 6, 1983 until May 13, 1993. Her husband was President Chaim Herzog.

At the end of her husband’s tenure as president, she held various positions, including: Chairperson of the Public Committee for the celebration of Israel’s Jubilee celebration (1998), Member of the Public Advisory Board of Mifal Hapayis, (Israel’s national lottery), Member of the Board of Governors of the Tel Aviv Museum, and Chairperson of Friends of Schneider association at Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel.

Aura Herzog Biography

Aura Ambache was born in Ismailia, Egypt on 24 December 1924, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family of Russian-Jewish and Polish-Jewish descent. Her parents were Leah Steinberg (daughter of Yechiel Michal Steinberg, the founding family of Motza, a village on the outskirts of Jerusalem), and Simcha Ambache (Hebrew acronym for ani ma’amin b’emunah shleima – I believe in complete faith), an engineer by profession. Aura’s sister Suzy married Israeli diplomat Abba Eban.

The family was originally from Jaffa. Herzog attended French schools in Ismailia and Cairo and completed her BA in mathematics and physics at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

In October 1946, Herzog immigrated to Mandatory Palestine. The following year, she was chosen to participate in the first class of the Diplomatic School established by the Jewish Agency. She was a member of the Haganah a Jewish paramilitary organization in the British Mandate of Palestine (1921–48). In 1947 she married Chaim Herzog.

On 11 March 1948, she was wounded in the attack on the Jewish Agency building in Jerusalem. During the War of Independence she served as an intelligence officer in the newly founded Science Corps and intelligence department Number 2 (Unit 8200).

Herzog had four children: Yoel, an attorney and former Brigadier General, Michael, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Isaac, the current President of Israel, and Ronit, a clinical psychologist. She died on 10 January 2022, at the age of 97.

Diplomatic career and public service

From 1950 to 1954, she accompanied her husband to the United States, where he was sent as a military attache, and again from 1975 to 1978, when he served as ambassador to the United Nations.

In 1958, Herzog headed the committee that organized Israel’s 10th anniversary celebrations and initiated the first Bible Quiz, which takes place every year on Israel Independence Day.

From 1959 to 1968, she headed the Department of Culture in the Ministry of Education and Culture and was a member of the Council for Arts and Culture. In 1969, she founded the Council for a Beautiful Israel, a leading environmental protection NGO and chaired it for 38 years, after which she became its international president.

After the end of her husband’s tenure as president, she held various positions: Chairperson of the Public Committee for the celebration of Israel’s Jubilee celebration (1998), Member of the Public Advisory Board of Mifal Hapayis (Israel’s national lottery), Member of the Board of Governors of the Tel Aviv Museum, and Chairperson of Friends of Schneider association at Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel.