Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Belfast Plaque Marking Chaim Herzog’s Birthplace Removed After Anti-Semitic Attacks

A marker commemorating the Belfast birthplace of the late Israeli president Chaim Herzog was removed following several anti-Semitic attacks.

The blue plaque honoring Herzog, Israel’s president from 1983 to 1993, was taken down in the Irish capital out of concern for the safety of those living nearby, the Belfast Telegraph reported.

“Attacks have included the scrawling of anti-Israeli graffiti on the building and items being thrown at the plaque and the house,” Brian Kingston, a local official, told the Telegraph. “Recently some youths were stopped in the process of trying to remove the plaque with a crowbar.”

The removal of the plaque, which was mounted in 1998, came a month after a north Belfast synagogue was vandalized.

Born in 1918, Herzog immigrated to British Mandate Palestine in 1935 and served in the Haganah, later fighting in Israel’s War of Independence. He also fought in the British army during Word War II.

Before being elected president, he served as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations and as a Knesset member. He died in 1997.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.