The remains of Theodor Herzl’s paternal grandparents are in the process of being brought to Israel from Serbia, and are due for burial on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on Aug. 5 in an official state ceremony, the World Zionist Organization announced on Wednesday.
Israel’s senior leadership and leading public officials are expected to attend, including President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of the Executive of the WZO.
Herzl is the visionary founder of modern Zionism and the Jewish state.
The remains of Shimon Leib and Rivka Herzl were exhumed from the Jewish cemetery in Zemun, a town absorbed into Belgrade in 1934, in accordance with local religious and legal requirements, the WZO said in a statement.
Representatives of the WZO and of ZAKA, as well as representatives of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, attended the exhumation, after which the remains were transferred to specially designated coffins in preparation for being flown to Israel.
It was Herzl’s wish to bring his own remains and those of his close family members to Jerusalem for reburial after the formation of a Jewish state.
In one of the Knesset’s first decisions, it fulfilled his wish on Aug. 17, 1949, and brought his remains, as well as those of his parents and of his sister Pauline, for their final rest on Mount Herzl.
In the years that followed, the remains of Herzl’s children and grandson were also reinterred there.
Now, 77 years after that first state ceremony, Herzl’s final wish will be completed.
“When Zion brings her children home, she also brings home their forebears. Today, the World Zionist Organization is closing a historic circle. Herzl’s grandparents are finally coming home to rest beside their grandson, in the heart of Jerusalem. Today, we are reconnecting the roots of the Herzl family with the land to which he devoted his life,” said Yaakov Hagoel, chairman of the WZO.
Herzl drew inspiration from his grandfather Shimon Leib Herzl, who served as the ba’al tekiah—the ceremonial shofar blower—at the synagogue in Zemun of Rabbi Judah Alkalai, one of the earliest heralds of political Zionism, the WZO said.
