HERZOG, ISAAC

Typed Letter Signed. Parting remarks of Chief Rabbi Herzog on the eve of his departure for the St. James Conference in London (1939). Single leaf in English on letterhead stationery of “Chief Rabbi of the Holy Land, Jerusalem.” * With: Two typed letters of acknowledgment and clarification regarding the above letter from the Chief Rabbi’s son, Chaim Herzog, President of the State of Israel, on letterhead of “Lishkath Nesi ha-Medinah” [Office of the President of the State], dated 28th August and 14th September, 1984, respectively, and signed by Chasiah Viner, Special Assistant to the President. Hebrew

Chief Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog (1888-1959), the second Aschkenazic Chief Rabbi of Eretz Israel, stood at the helm of World Jewry both during the Holocaust and the struggles leading to the establishment of the State of Israel. Rabbi Herzog was a representative at the various conferences and commissions to find a solution to the Arab-Jewish conflict. He was indefatigable and unflagging in his efforts to rescue European Jewry during, before and after World War Two. The St. James Conference held in London in February 1939 was called by British Colonial Secretary MacDonald to resolve the impasse between the Arabs and Jews in Palestine. If it was not already apparent, it became obvious at the Conference that the British government was no longer committed to the Mandate which provided for a National Home for the Jews in Palestine, but was by now apparently decidedly on the side of the Arabs. See S. Avidor, Yahid be-Doro (1980), a full-length biography of Rabbi Herzog; EJ, Vol. VIII, cols. 422-425.