Mo Thír Féin The Small Histories That Made Ireland
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The Irish · 2 of 3

Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog

Cormac Óg

1915 to 1937

The scholar from Łomża who became the Sinn Féin Rabbi, and a friend to de Valera.

Rabbi Isaac Herzog, white bearded and in a top hat, speaking into a microphone at an outdoor gathering.
Rabbi Herzog speaks at Lydda airport on 21 April 1939, two years after he left Dublin. Colourised from an original in the Library of Congress, Matson Collection.

Isaac Herzog was the first Chief Rabbi of the Irish Free State. He was a scholar of law and languages, he spoke Irish, and de Valera was his friend.

The stories about him are warm and many of them are true. Some are better than the record. This keeps the two apart.

1915. Belfast

He was born at Łomża, in Poland, in 1888. He was known as a prodigy by the age of nine. He studied at the Sorbonne and at Leeds, and the University of London gave him a BA in 1909, an MA in 1911 and a doctorate in 1914. He was ordained a rabbi in 1910.

The Belfast congregation appointed him its rabbi, and he stayed four years. He married Sarah Hillman. Their son Chaim, later the sixth President of Israel, was born in Belfast in 1918.

The story, and this site until now, puts his arrival in Belfast in 1916. The Dictionary of Irish Biography says 1915.

1919. Dublin

In 1919 he moved to Dublin as chief rabbi of the city's community. He identified himself with the national movement, he spoke Irish, and he was called the Sinn Féin Rabbi.

The story says he was Chief Rabbi of Ireland from 1919. The record is untidy. The Dictionary of Irish Biography says he became Chief Rabbi of the Irish Free State in 1925. Other accounts give 1921 or 1922, and History Ireland counts his years from 1919. All agree that he was the first.

He was scholarly, absent minded and well liked. De Valera, who shared his interest in mathematics, visited him often. Herzog was on good terms with Cosgrave's government too, and he made successful representations on behalf of Jews who wanted to work in Ireland. He was a friend of Joseph MacRory, the Catholic bishop who became Cardinal.

1936. The call of Zion

In 1936 de Valera consulted him on the new constitution. Article 44, as adopted, named the Jewish Congregations among the religious bodies the state recognised.

The story says Herzog wrote that clause. The record shows that he was consulted. The published accounts of how Article 44 was drafted name the papal nuncio, the Cardinal, the Catholic and Church of Ireland archbishops of Dublin, the Methodists and the Presbyterian minister James Irwin. They do not show Herzog's hand in the wording. It may be there. It has not been shown.

On the first of December 1936 he was chosen as Chief Rabbi of Palestine. At a farewell at the Mansion House in April 1937 he said he was sad to leave, but that he could not resist the call of Zion. He left that year.

Rabbi Herzog speaking at a table under flags at the opening of Tel Aviv port.
Rabbi Herzog at the opening of Tel Aviv port on 23 February 1938. Colourised from an original in the Library of Congress, Matson Collection.

1946. The telegrams

Through the war he sent de Valera urgent telegrams about what was happening to the Jews of Europe. Very few Jewish refugees were let into Ireland.

On a visit to Dublin in September 1946 he voiced his concern at the country's restrictive refugee policy. The friendship was real. So was the policy.