Herzog's Rosh Hashanah message goes out in eight languages

President Isaac Herzog has issued a Rosh Hashanah message to Jewish communities around the world ahead of the Jewish New Year, delivered from the President's Residence in Jerusalem. According to the statement published by the Israeli government, the address was released on September 10, 2026.

The government statement said the message is being published in eight different languages, in videos dubbed and translated by Panjaya, in what it described as recognition and celebration of the diversity of global Jewry. The full English text was published alongside the announcement.

What the president said

Herzog built the address around the shofar, the ram's horn sounded in synagogues during the High Holidays. He described it as a call sounded by the Jewish people for generations, asking for forgiveness and to be inscribed in the Book of Life, and as a summons to refocus one's life and goals.

He said the sound also carries pain: for those who have been lost, for those who defended what he called the only Jewish state, for victims of terror inside Israel's borders, and for victims of what he described as the tide of antisemitism around the world. "Dear sisters and brothers, this is the feeling we share in our hearts and souls, wherever we live," he said.

Against that, Herzog set out three further calls he said the shofar carries. The first was pride, which he said he encounters in Jewish communities wherever he travels and among visitors to Jerusalem, singling out young Jews whose sense of responsibility he called the greatest answer to hatred. He also referred to friends of Israel and the Jewish people in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and beyond.

The second was a call to action, which he tied to tikkun olam, a Hebrew phrase meaning repair of the world, used to describe the obligation to improve society. The third was a call to listen to one another and to show mutual respect, which he applied directly to Israeli political debate.

Who the president is, and what the office does

The presidency of Israel is a largely ceremonial post, separate from the prime minister, who heads the government. The president is elected by the Knesset, Israel's parliament, and the role carries symbolic and representational duties rather than executive power. One of its central functions in practice is serving as a link between the State of Israel and Jewish communities in the diaspora, which is why holiday messages of this kind are issued from the President's Residence rather than from the government.

Herzog referred in the message to Voice of the People, describing it as an initiative and council he founded that represents all parts of Israel and the Jewish world, and saying a new cohort begins this autumn. The statement does not give further detail on the initiative's structure or membership.

Rosh Hashanah and the shofar

Rosh Hashanah, literally the head of the year, marks the start of the Jewish civil year and opens the High Holidays, a period of reflection and repentance that concludes on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The shofar is blown during synagogue services across the holiday. The imagery of being written and sealed in the Book of Life, which Herzog invoked, comes from the liturgy of these days.

The president closed with the traditional greeting "Leshanah tovah tikatevu v'techatemu," a wish that the listener be inscribed and sealed for a good year, followed by "Shanah tovah, v'am Yisrael chai," meaning a good year, and the people of Israel live.

A reference to Israeli elections

In the section on listening, Herzog addressed Israelis debating their country's future ahead of what he called next month's elections, and said Jews in the diaspora are watching closely. The government statement does not give a date for the vote, name any party or candidate, or expand on the political context. The president's office does not contest elections, and the remark in the message is a call for respectful debate rather than a comment on any side.

A citation of Rabbi Sacks

Herzog quoted the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, referred to in the text as of blessed memory. He attributed to Sacks the idea that the shofar reminds listeners of their ultimate destination and of how far there is still to go. Herzog said the Jewish people and the State of Israel have always known their destination.

What the statement does not say

The published material sets out the English text and the fact of translation, but it does not list which eight languages the message appears in, nor where the videos are being distributed. It gives no information about Panjaya beyond its role in dubbing and translation. It does not say whether the address was recorded before a live audience or filmed privately, and it does not detail the size, timing or composition of the new Voice of the People cohort. The page carrying the remarks also carries a standard note that where its information conflicts with the law, the law applies.