Herzl Grandparents Get Final Resting Place on Mount Herzl

The gravestones for Theodor Herzl’s grandparents were formally unveiled on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on Monday. The ceremony took place exactly 109 years after the Balfour Declaration was issued. The couple, Shimon Aryeh Leib and Rivka Herzl, were reinterred at the site in August following the transfer of their remains from Serbia.

Yaakov Hagoel, chairman of the World Zionist Organization, led the unveiling alongside Eli Hazan of Keren Hayesod and Tzvi Hassid, the director-general of ZAKA. Members of the Herzl family and public representatives also attended the event. Hagoel spoke to the connection between the site and the history of Zionism.

“Even today, there are those who try to disconnect Herzl from his Jewish roots and portray Zionism as a movement that broke away from tradition,” Hagoel said. “Today, here on Mount Herzl, the historical truth stands before us. It is no coincidence that we are standing here on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.”

The couple was initially buried in the Herzl family plot on August 5 in a state ceremony. Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana attended that event. The reinterment followed roughly four years of coordination involving the World Zionist Organization, Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the Military Rabbinate, ZAKA, and Serbian authorities.

Officials faced a logistical hurdle during the process in July. They opened what was believed to be Shimon Leib’s grave in Zemun, now part of Belgrade, and found it empty. His remains were subsequently located next to the grave of his wife, Rivka. Shimon Leib was active in the local Jewish community and followed Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, an early proponent of Jewish return to the land.

At the August ceremony, President Herzog noted that Shimon Leib served as a gabbai at Alkalai’s synagogue. This role likely exposed him to ideas regarding Jewish sovereignty and the revival of Hebrew. Theodor Herzl, born in Budapest in 1860, convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897. He died in Vienna in 1904, and his remains were brought to Jerusalem in August 1949.

Hagoel addressed the historical context of the Balfour Declaration during Monday’s ceremony. He stated that the declaration, sent to Lord Rothschild and the Zionist Organization, provided international recognition. “Balfour did not give us the right to the land, he merely recognized it,” Hagoel said. “Our right was born from the longing and prayers of Jews like Shimon and Rivka Herzl.”