When Israel’s first lady had Shabbat in Benoni

Aura Herzog, who died recently at the age of 97, was the wife of late Israeli President Chaim Herzog, and the mother of the current president, Isaac Herzog. But before she became first lady, she was a young woman who studied a BSc in maths and physics at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).

She graduated in 1945, and although her years in South Africa were spent a very long time ago, at least one person remembers her from back then.

“My sister, Hazel [Nestadt, nee Orlin], and Aura studied together. They were very close friends,” says Lorna Ossip in Johannesburg. “They were the only two women doing the course, and they were both very bright. Aura was staying in residence, so my sister would invite her to come to our home in Benoni for Shabbat and for the weekend. She would come often. It was the end of the war, so it was difficult to get flour, but I remember my mother baking bread especially for them. I was only a teenager, so I can’t believe I remember her, but I do!”

After their studies, both women made their way to Israel, but settled in very different circles and sadly, lost contact. “My sister was a chalutz, and went to Israel before independence to live on a kibbutz,” says Ossip. “She was a member of Ha’Shomer Ha’tzair. She later taught maths and science, and was a brilliant teacher. Up until she passed away, students would say that they remembered her as an amazing teacher. Aura must have also been brilliant.”

Meanwhile, Aura met Chaim, who would later become Israel’s sixth president. Her life up until that point was fascinating. She was born Aura Ambache in Ismailia, Egypt, on 24 December 1924, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family of Russian and Polish Jewish descent. Her parents were Leah Steinberg (the daughter of Yechiel Michal Steinberg, the founding family of Motza, a village on the outskirts of Jerusalem), and Simcha Ambache (the Hebrew acronym for ani ma’amin b’emunah shleima – I believe in complete faith), an engineer by profession who worked on the Suez Canal.

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 then studied in Johannesburg.

But what led her to South Africa in the first place? “I asked my niece in Israel if her mother [Hazel] had ever spoken about her friendship with Aura, and she said she had talked about it fondly. I asked her why she thought Aura studied in South Africa, and she said that until today, people in Arab countries send their children away to study if they are able to,” says Ossip.

Herzog had another connection to South Africa: her sister, Suzy, married Israeli leader Abba Eban, who was born in Cape Town.

In October 1946, Herzog moved to what was then mandatory Palestine – probably about the same time that her classmate, Hazel, made aliya. The following year, Herzog was chosen to participate in the first class of the diplomatic school established by the Jewish Agency. She was a member of the Haganah, and went on to serve as an intelligence officer and later in the Science Corps.

Not many people know that she was severely injured in a car bomb at the Jewish Agency in National Institutions House in Jerusalem on 11 March 1948. It was one of the worst attacks of the War of Independence up to that time. Thirteen people were killed. Newspapers reported that Chaim carried her out of the building. According to other reports, her injuries were severe and life-threatening. She remained in hospital for about two months, and lived with many scars after the ordeal.

She married Chaim in 1947. The couple had four children: Yoel, an attorney and former brigadier general; Michael, the Israeli ambassador to the United States; Isaac, the current president of Israel; and Ronit, a clinical psychologist.

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

In 1958, she headed up the committee that organised Israel’s 10th anniversary celebrations. She also 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 nongovernmental organisation, and chaired it for 38 years, after which she became its international president.

Aware of the many cultural differences between different immigrant groups to Israel, she also wrote a well-received book on hospitality and etiquette.

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 the chairperson of Friends of Schneider Association at Schneider Children’s Medical Center. She worked in many spheres until her passing.

She died on 10 January 2022, just more than two weeks after her 97th birthday. She’s buried alongside her husband and a number of other Israeli leaders in western Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl national cemetery.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett eulogised her as “a public figure and social activist who loved her people and country. She lived humbly and raised a family to be proud of, while constantly working for the public and Israeli society,” he said. Defence Minister Benny Gantz called her “a pioneering woman who worked for Israeli society and was a part of the generation that built the nation, and to whom we are all grateful”.

For Ossip, it’s still incredible to think that Israel’s first lady and first mother spent weekends at her home in Benoni. It’s special that Herzog will always be connected to the South African Jewish community in this way.