Jerusalem: Ishak Herzog, Scion of the leading Zionist family, took an oath of office on Wednesday and became the new President of Israel.
With one hand on the Bible before the Knesset – Parliament Israel – Herzog, 60, assuming the ceremonial position designed to falsify national unity and function as the country’s moral compass.
Parliament rooms are decorated with large white lilies bouquets for the inauguration.
Rabbi military horn blows horns, followed by performances by children’s choirs.
Herzog, whose father, Chaim, served as President of Israel in the 1980s, replaced Reuven Rivlin as Israeli President and will hold an office for seven years.
Chaim Herzog also served as Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.
The new presidential genealogy included his grandfather, Yitzhak Halevi Herzog, who was the head of the first rabbi in the country.
His uncle, Abba Eban, served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador for U.N.
and the United States.
“The truth is that I’m a little jealous of you,” Rivlin said in a letter to Herzog published on Twitter.
“In a short time when you will find great and beautiful privileges that you have” to become president of the entire Israeli community – Jews and Arabic, religious and secular, old and old.
Herzog was chosen for the presidency by Knesset last month.
He previously served as Head of Labor Party and Head of Opposition in Parliament.
After leaving politics in 2018, he served as Head of the Jewish Agency, a non-profit organization that worked with the Israeli government to promote Jewish immigration to Israel and to serve Jewish society abroad.
Taking the office during the deep division in the Israeli community, said Herzog in his election that he intended to be a “President of everyone” and worked to preserve Israeli democracy.
While most of Office functions are to accept foreign officials and other ceremonial roles, the President has the power to provide forgiveness.
It could be part of the national agenda if former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was being tried for allegations of corruption, had been punished.
The President is also responsible for choosing a political party leader to form a coalition that governs and serves as Prime Minister after parliamentary elections – Rivlin’s task has made five times at the office, last after parliamentary elections March 23.
Herzog inauguration came less than a month after Israel swore in the new government under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who hit the coalition agreement with the Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.
Netanyahu was overthrown from the office after being 12 years old as the prime minister – the longest in Israel’s history – and now functions as an opposition leader.