Autographs
President of Israel CHAIM HERZOG Signed 1st Day Cover
CHAIM HERZOG (1918-1997). 6th and Longest-Serving President of Israel (1983-1993), Major General and Military Governor over the West Bank.
March 15, 1984-Dated Chaim Herzog Signed First Day Cover measuring 6.75" x 4". Herzog signed his name in Hebrew and in English in the middle of the cover in fine black ink, Choice Crisp Near Mint. The cover commemorates Yigal Allon, a former Prime Minister of Israel and member of the Knesset, who died in 1980. The cover features a 15 shekel Israeli postage stamp of Annon affixed in the upper right and is postmarked Jerusalem, March 15, 1984, JOUR D'EMISSION (Day of Issue).
CHAIM HERZOG (1918-1997). President of Israel, 1983-1993. Born in Belfast, Chaim Herzog grew up in Dublin before immigrating with his family to Palestine in 1935. In 1936, he joined the Haganah, an organization that sought to create a separate Jewish state.
With the formation of Israel in 1948, Herzog fought against neighboring Arab countries in the War of Independence and was appointed Director of Military Intelligence, a post he held until 1950 and that later qualified him for the task of defense attach at Israel's embassy in the United States and later in Canada.
In 1954, Herzog was posted as Military Commander of the Jerusalem District. He remained there until 1959 and, after holding a variety of other staff appointments, was again named Director of Military Intelligence (1959-1962). He rose to the rank of Major General before retiring from the army in 1962. Herzog's broadcasts as military commentator during the Six-Day War in 1967 achieved world renown, and he was appointed as the first Israeli Military Governor of the West Bank after the conquest of Jerusalem.
Like his brother-in-law, Abba Eban (Mrs. Herzog and Mrs Eban were sisters), he became an outstanding and popular Ambassador at the United Nations, where he remained from 1975 until 1978. In 1981, as a member of the Israeli Labour Party, Herzog was elected to the Knesset.