Early life and work

Aura Ambache was born in Ismailia, Egypt, on 24 December 1924, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family of Russian Jewish and Polish Jewish descent. Her parents were Leah Steinberg (daughter of Yechiel Michal Steinberg, the founding family of Motza, a village on the outskirts of Jerusalem), and Simcha Ambache (Hebrew acronym for ani ma'amin b'emunah shleima - I believe in complete faith), an engineer by profession. Aura's sister Suzy married Israeli diplomat Abba Eban.^[2]

The family was originally from Jaffa, but relocated to Egypt after they were expelled by the Turks during World War I. Herzog attended French schools in Ismailia and Cairo and completed her BA in mathematics and physics at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.^[2]

In October 1946, Herzog immigrated to Mandatory Palestine. The following year, she was chosen to participate in the first class of the Diplomatic School established by the Jewish Agency. She was a member of the Haganah, a Jewish paramilitary organization in the British Mandate of Palestine (1921–48). In 1947, she married Chaim Herzog and the couple had four children, namely Yoel (born 1949), an attorney and former Brigadier General, Michael (born 1952), the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Isaac (born 1960), the current President of Israel and Ronit (born 1965), a clinical psychologist.^[3]

On 11 March 1948, she was seriously injured in a bombing attack on the Jewish Agency building in the National Institutions House in Jerusalem. During the War of Independence she served as an intelligence officer in the newly founded Science Corps and intelligence department Number 2 (Unit 8200).

Diplomatic career and public service

From 1950 to 1954, she accompanied her husband to the United States, where he was sent as a military attache, and again from 1975 to 1978, when he served as ambassador to the United Nations.

In 1958, Herzog headed the committee that organized Israel's 10th anniversary celebrations and initiated the first International Bible Contest, which takes place annually on Israel Independence Day.

From 1959 to 1968, she headed the Department of Culture in the Ministry of Education and Culture and was a member of the Council for Arts and Culture. In 1969, she founded the Council for a Beautiful Israel, a leading environmental protection NGO and chaired it for 38 years, after which she became its international president.

After the end of her husband's presidency and her own tenure as first lady, she held various positions: Chairperson of the Public Committee for the celebration of Israel's Jubilee celebration (1998), Member of the Public Advisory Board of Mifal Hapayis (Israel's national lottery), Member of the Board of Governors of the Tel Aviv Museum, and Chairperson of Friends of Schneider association at Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel.

President Isaac Herzog and his wife Michal paying respects at the President's Residence ahead of the funeral of Aura Herzog

Later life

Aura Herzog died on 10 January 2022, at the age of 97. She is buried alongside her husband and a number of other Israeli leaders in Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl national cemetery.^[4] In his eulogy, her son President Isaac Herzog paid tribute to her as “an extremely loving mother for all of us, a source of strength, an engine with incredible energies.”^[5]