Today in 1949, Herzl’s coffin was brought to Jerusalem for burial.
Benjamin Zeev (Theodore) Herzl, the Austrian playwright and intellectual who in the 1890s became the creator of the current of political Zionism, the founder of the Zionist Organization and the undisputed leader of the Zionist movement, died at a relatively young age – 44, in 1904.
Herzl died near Vienna, the city where he lived and worked for most of his years; But in his will he specifically asked: “…that the Jewish people raise my body to the Land of Israel”, a request that clearly echoed Joseph’s request at the end of the book of Genesis. The State of Israel declared its independence in May 1948, and Ben-Gurion stood under Herzl’s portrait when he read the declaration of independence (Herzl missed by just one year, the prediction he gave after the gathering of the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897: “In Basel I founded the state of the Jews… If I had said this in public today, the answer would have been laughter from all sides. Maybe in five years, at the most in fifty years, they will recognize it all”)
The State of Israel decided to fulfill Herzl’s will, and assigned a mountain to the west of the Beit Vagan neighborhood in Jerusalem in his name. In August 1949, Herzl’s coffin was brought to Israel, and a funeral ceremony was held on the mountain and the burial, in which thousands of people participated. Only a decade later, a large and impressive tombstone was placed on top of the grave; in the meantime, the mountain became the official national leaders and military cemetery.
From 1948 to 1967, it was not possible to bury in the the traditional Mount of Olives cemetery because the Jordanians had taken over the area, denied access and allowed tens of thousands of Jewish tombs to be desecrated in those years. As a result, and due to the many who fell in the War of Independence, there was a need for a new national cemetery. Until today, a visit to the Mt Herzl cemetery is an opportunity to learn about and honor the great men and women who have dedicated their lives to the State of Israel.
