President Isaac Herzog received the letters of credence of seven new ambassadors on Tuesday.In most cases it was not only a matter of further cementing diplomatic connections between Israel and the home countries of the ambassadors, but of links between members of Herzog’s family and those countries.
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He told Ivory Coast Ambassador Fe’ni Kouakou that as a child he had been in kindergarten and at school with the children of the person who was then the ambassador of the Ivory Coast.Herzog related to Peru’s Ambassador Manuel Sousa Velazquez that all three of his sons had been to Peru, and loved it so much that they went again.Kornelios Korneliou, the ambassador of Cyprus, was already aware of Herzog’s family connections with Cyprus. Herzog’s maternal grandfather, Simcha Ambache, in 1930, together with partners, founded the famous Phasson Plantations.
Both Herzog and his wife, Michal, had previously met with British Ambassador Simon Walters at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth and again at the coronation of King Charles. Aside from that Herzog has strong family ties with Britain, where his paternal grandfather and one of his great-grandfathers were distinguished rabbis, and where his father had served as an officer in the British Army.Both Herzog and Walters are the sons of intelligence officers.Another great grandfather had been chief rabbi of Paris, and some of his French relatives had been murdered in Auschwitz, Herzog told French Ambassador Frederic Journes. He also spoke of his warm friendship with President Emmanuel Macron, who had sent him greetings for the new year.Herzog and Irish Ambassador Sonya McGuiness had met previously two weeks earlier, when she escorted Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin to a meeting with Herzog, but the Irish connection goes much deeper. His father and uncle were born in Ireland, and his paternal grandfather had been chief rabbi of Ireland before moving to British Mandate Palestine.With Brazil, it wasn’t Herzog who personally had the connection, it was Michal, who spent some of her youth there from 1972 to 1975, the years in which her father, Col. Shaul Afek, served as a military attaché at the Israel embassy. Michal Herzog had been conferred with the Grand Cross Order of Rio Branco, which is Brazil’s highest civilian honor, and she wore it replete with medal and deep blue shoulder sash in the presence of Brazil’s Ambassador Frederico Meyer.The president held individual meetings with each ambassador, and the various conversations covered a wide range of diverse topics that included aspects of the bilateral relationship that Israel has with each of the countries, plus a number of interesting anecdotes and personal issues on both sides.In the evening, Herzog hosted the traditional pre-Yom Kippur slihot (penitential liturgies) with the participation of Rabbi Benny Lau, the founder of 629, the biblical study initiative.