Bodies of Herzl’s grandparents exhumed in Belgrade, to be reinterred in Jerusalem next week

The remains of the grandparents of Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl were exhumed today from their graves in Belgrade, Serbia, in order to be brought to Israel and reinterred next week on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

The bodies of Shimon and Rivka Herzl will be buried next to their grandson’s grave on Mount Herzl in a ceremony on August 5, exactly 77 years after Herzl was reburied there in 1949.

The exhumation was carried out under local legal and religious requirements in the presence of representatives from the World Zionist Organization, Israel’s Foreign Ministry and the emergency response organization ZAKA. The remains were transferred to specially designated coffins for transport to Israel.

Herzl’s grandparents are believed to have influenced his early attachment to Zionism. Shimon Herzl was a Jewish community leader in Belgrade and was close to Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, an early herald of Zionism. Shimon served as the ba’al tekiah — the ceremonial shofar blower — at Alkalai’s synagogue.

Herzl, who founded the Zionist Organization (later the WZO) in 1897, was buried in Vienna after he died of a heart ailment in 1904. In 1949, his remains were taken to Israel and reinterred on Mount Herzl, named in his honor.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog are expected to attend the ceremony next week.