Tearing Up the White Paper

In May 1939 the British government published the White Paper, which sharply restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine. Rav Herzog led a procession through the streets of Yerushalayim, and Jews of every sort followed him, in a unity that was rare in those days.

On the steps of the Hurva Synagogue he turned to the crowd and said: "We cannot agree to the White Paper. Just as the prophets did before me, I hereby rip it in two."

Some forty years later, on 10 November 1975, his son Chaim Herzog, then ambassador of Israel to the UN, repeated his father's gesture when the UN passed its resolution that Zionism is equal to racism.