Herzi Halevi
Herzi Halevi · Heroes of Israel
Paratrooper and Sayeret Matkal commander, first Orthodox Jew to head Israeli Military Intelligence (2014), then 23rd chief of the general staff of the IDF from January 2023 to March 2025.
17 December 1967, Jerusalem, Israel
Jerusalem
Herzi Halevi is recognized among Israeli contributors to Heroes of Israel — Paratrooper and Sayeret Matkal commander, first Orthodox Jew to head Israeli Military Intelligence (2014), then 23rd chief of the general staff of the IDF from January 2023 to March 2025.
Origins and early life
Herzl Halevi, known as Herzi, was born in Jerusalem on 17 December 1967 into an observant family, and was named after an uncle, a paratrooper killed in the Six-Day War a few months before his birth. His mother's family had lived in Jerusalem for fourteen generations and his father's parents had come from Russia; his paternal grandmother was the daughter of Rabbi Dov-Ber HaCohen Kook and a niece of the chief rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook.
He attended a religious high school and belonged to a religious scouting movement, then was drafted in 1985, volunteered for the Paratroopers Brigade and became an infantry officer in 1987.
Work and career
He later served in Sayeret Matkal, the army's special forces unit, which he went on to command, and in 2007 he took command of the Paratroopers Brigade. Appointed head of Military Intelligence in 2014, he was the first Orthodox Jew to hold that post, and in 2018 he became commander of the Southern Command, which oversees the army's activity around the Gaza Strip. Named deputy chief of staff in 2021, he became on 16 January 2023 the twenty-third chief of the general staff of the Israel Defense Forces, and the first observant officer in that post, although he no longer wore a kippah.
He commanded the army in the war that began on 7 October 2023, announced his resignation in January 2025 and handed over to Eyal Zamir on 5 March 2025. He holds a degree in philosophy and business management from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and in 2023 the Jerusalem Post ranked him fifteenth among the fifty most influential Jews in the world.
Verify and go deeper with these external references.
Source: Wikipedia — Herzi Halevi ; Jewish Virtual Library ; Jerusalem Post ; Al-Monitor
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Paratrooper and Sayeret Matkal commander, first Orthodox Jew to head Israeli Military Intelligence (2014), then 23rd chief of the general staff of the IDF from January 2023 to March 2025.
Source: Wikipedia — Herzi Halevi ; Jewish Virtual Library ; Jerusalem Post ; Al-Monitor
