By COLlive & JewishPress.com
Photos: Meir Alfasi and GPO
Herzi Halevi assumed his position as the 23rd Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday.
Earlier in the day, Halevi was awarded the rank of Lieutenant General in a ceremony led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel’s Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant.
Halevi and his predecessor Aviv Kohavi visited the National Memorial Hall for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. There, a joint memorial ceremony was held in memory of the IDF’s fallen soldiers who fell in defense of the State of Israel.
Following the memorial ceremony, the two visited the Kotel in Jerusalem, and a ceremonial reception was held at the President’s Residence together with the wives of Kohavi and Halevi. During the reception, President Isaac Herzog presented a certificate of appreciation to Kohavi in recognition of his contribution to the IDF and Israel.
The main ceremony, which included honor guards for the 22nd Chief of the General Staff and the 23rd Chief of the General Staff, was held at Camp Rabin (Hakirya) in Tel Aviv.
Participating in the honor guards were Israeli government ministers, members of the Israeli Knesset, the IDF General Staff, senior officials from Israel’s Ministry of Defense, the commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), General Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the Deputy Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, Lieutenant General Markus Laubenthal.
Participating were foreign attachés, heads of organizations, bereaved families, former IDF commanders, family members. Present was Rabbi Menachem Ofen, the Chabad Shliach who does outreach work in the IDF. He personally thanked Kohavi for his service.
Halevi was born in Jerusalem, where his mother’s family has lived for 14 generations and are relatives of Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, the chief rabbi of Israel and father of religious Zionism. His father’s parents immigrated from Russia.
Halevi was named Hertzel after his uncle who died in the Six-Day War several months before his birth. He was raised in a religious household and studied at religious schools during his childhood.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and business management from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a master’s degree in international resource management from the National Defense University in Washington, DC.
Halevi most recently served as the Deputy Chief of the General Staff. While he stopped wearing a kippah at some point during his military service, but once said he is still observant making him the first observant Jew to serve as the head of Israeli military intelligence.
Halevi focused his own remarks on the threats facing Israel and the strength of the IDF to contend with those threats.
“Our enemies should know we can do what we say we will do and we are ready to do much more than what we say,” he warned.
“We will prepare the IDF for war against arenas far and near,” Halevi said. “We will expand quality recruitment to the IDF from all strata of the population, the source of our strength. We will strengthen the reserve army and maintain a united, focused, moral and professional IDF free from all considerations other than security,” he pledged.
VIDEO:
