Mount Herzl

History

In 1934, Zionist leader Menahem Ussishkin organized the re-interment of Leon Pinsker in Nicanor Cave on Mount Scopus in an attempt to build a pantheon for the great leaders of the Jewish nation. Ussishkin was buried there himself in 1941. When Mount Scopus became an enclave, cut off from Jerusalem, the implementation of this plan was no longer feasible.

During summer 1949, Theodor Herzl's remains were reinterred on a hill in West Jerusalem which faced the Mount of Olives from a distance and renamed in his honour, Mount Herzl. In November 1949, soldiers who fell during the War of Independence in the Jerusalem area were buried on the north slope of the hill. In 1951 the government decided to establish a national cemetery for Israeli leaders and fallen soldiers at Mount Herzl. It has served this purpose ever since.

Architects

The military section is the work of two Hungarian-born architects. Architect Dr. Asher Hiram, born in 1897 in Budapest as Sigmund Kerekes, designed the main elements of the Israeli military cemeteries, which prevail until today; while landscape architect Haim Giladi designed the gardens at Mount Herzl.

Purpose and significance

Apart from Theodor Herzl, Mt. Herzl is the burial place of five of Israel's prime ministers: Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Shamir, Yitzhak Rabin (who is buried beside his wife Leah) and Shimon Peres. Israeli presidents are also buried on Mt. Herzl, as are other prominent Jewish and Zionist leaders.

Mt. Herzl is the venue for many commemorative events and national celebrations.

Theodor Herzl's grave

In 1903, Theodor Herzl wrote in his will:

I wish to be buried in a metal coffin next to my father, and to remain there until the Jewish people will transfer my remains to Eretz Israel. The coffins of my father, my sister Pauline, and of my close relatives who will have died until then will also be transferred there.

When Herzl died a year later, he was interred in Vienna. Forty-five years later, Herzl's remains were brought to Israel and re-interred in Jerusalem. The location of the burial site was selected by a special state commission in the top of a hill in Jerusalem next to Military cemetery of Jerusalem. He was buried on 17 August 1949. A temporary stone marked his grave for several years until the site was developed into a national cemetery. Sixty-three entries were submitted in the competition for the design of his new tombstone. The winner was Joseph Klarwein's design, consisting of an unadorned black granite stone inscribed with the name Herzl. The area around his tomb has been expanded into the plaza where the first Independence Day ceremony was held in 1950.

Despite Herzl's wishes, his daughter Pauline and son Hans were not originally buried beside him. Their remains were moved to Mt. Herzl in 2006. A third daughter was murdered in the Holocaust and her place of burial is unknown. The small Stephen Norman Park, located between the Herzl Museum and the Herzl Educational Center, is dedicated to the memory of Herzl's only grandson, who took his own life in the United States in 1946 after learning about the fate of his family during the Holocaust and being confrunted with Jewish misery in the Displaced Persons camps, and was reinterred on Mt. Herzl in December 2007. Herzl's parents and sister are also buried at Mount Herzl.

National Civil Cemetery

Israel's main cemetery for the leaders of the country and people that sacrificed their lives for the country is located on the southern slope of Mt. Herzl, established there in 1952 when Ben Gurion decided to bury the finance minister in Helkat Gedolei Ha'Uma, close to Herzl's grave. The design of the cemetery area was continued over the following years when other famous people from the Zionist movement were brought to be buried there.

Meaning

The Great Leaders of the Nation's Plot or Memorial Park holds the graves of several Prime Ministers, Presidents, Knesset speakers and other chosen national leaders of the State of Israel. It forms a separate section of the Mount Herzl cemetery from that of the leaders of the Zionist Organization (after 1960: World Zionist Organization), which is situated nearby.

The Hebrew name Helkat Gedolei Ha'Uma (Hebrew: חלקת גדולי האומה‎‎) is used in common parlance either in a narrower meaning, for the State of Israel leaders' section, or in a wider one, which includes pre-state Zionist leaders.

Buried there are Presidents Zalman Shazar and Chaim Herzog, Shimon Peres and Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin and his wife Leah Rabin. Other notable graves are those of the first speaker of the Knesset, Yosef Sprinzak and his wife Hanna, the first Minister of Finance, Eliezer Kaplan, and Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek. Despite the national significance of the cemetery, some Israeli leaders were buried elsewhere, most notably Chaim Weizmann (buried at Weizmann House), David Ben-Gurion (buried at Midreshet Ben-Gurion) and Menachem Begin (buried at Mount of Olives).

Deciding who should be buried on Mt. Herzl has sometimes been controversial. For example, the decision to bury Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who died in 1940, on Mt. Herzl, was fiercely opposed by many Labour Party stalwarts, who claimed that Jabotinsky was an ultra-right nationalist undeserving of such an honour. Only in 1964 did Prime Minister Levi Eshkol decide in favor of burying him there, in the interest of promoting national reconciliation and setting aside political grievances. Soldiers awarded with the Medal of Valor may also be buried at Mount Herzl.

(World) Zionist Organization Leaders; Herzl's family

To the north of Herzl's grave is a plot reserved for the leaders of the (World) Zionist Organization, among them David Wolffsohn, Nahum Sokolow, Simcha Dinitz, and Arieh Dulzin. In the same section are the graves and cenotaphs of close relatives of Theodor Herzl.

Ze'ev Jabotinsky

The grave of Ze'ev Jabotinsky and his family is in a separate plot southwest of Herzl's grave.

Victims of Acts of Terror Memorial

The Victims of Acts of Terror Memorial is the main memorial for all victims of terrorism in Israel from 1851 until today. The Memorial was opened in 1997, and every year a ceremony is held on the plaza, in memory of the victims of terror. The memorial is located in the National Civil Cemetery next to Helkat Gedolei Ha'Uma.

Other memorials

Listed with the plot numbers and according to the on-site plans:

National military cemetery

The main Israel Defense Forces cemetery is located on the northern slope of Mt. Herzl. It was established in November 1949, when soldiers who fell in the Jerusalem area were buried here. In 1949, the government decided to turn the site into the main cemetery for IDF members who have fallen in the line of duty. The Israel Police cemetery, for police officers who have fallen in the line of duty, is also located there.

There are specific areas or monuments for following categories of fallen fighters, listed with the actual plot numbers and according to the on-site plans:

All soldiers, regardless of rank or unit, are buried side by side. The gravestones are plain and unadorned, only recording name, rank, and place and date of birth and death.

Christian, Muslim, and Druze soldiers

The military cemetery also honours the memory of Israel's fallen Christian, Muslim, and Druze soldiers who have served in the Israeli security forces.

Garden of the Missing in Action

The Garden of the Missing in Action is a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Memorial and Memory Garden for soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces and those who fought for the pre-state Land of Israel whose resting places are unknown from 1914 until today. The garden was established on 29 February 2004 in a ceremony attended by army chiefs, the Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, and members of the Jerusalem Municipality at the National Military and Police cemetery. The garden also contains memorials to those lost aboard the submarine INS Dakar and the 23 Who Went Down at Sea.

An annual memorial service for the Missing Soldiers of Israel takes place in the garden's main plaza on Seventh of Adar day.

The garden includes "empty graves" and stone monuments to the memory of missing soldiers. At the entrance to the garden, there is a small plaza where memorial ceremonies to the missing are held. On the north side of the plaza there is a memorial to the missing sailors of the INS Dakar submarine, which sank in the Mediterranean sea. On the north side of the plaza is a memorial wall bearing the names of all missing soldiers and fighters from 1914 until today. On the top of the wall there is a waterfall.

Hall of Names

Israel plans to establish a new national memorial hall to be built at the entrance to the National Military and Police cemetery. The new memorial is intended to honour the memory of the 22,684 soldiers and security personnel who have fallen defending the land of Israel since 1860. It will be built in the shape of a torch rising some 18 meters where a fire will burn all year long. The Ministry of Defense plan includes all 22,684 names, each with a candle to be lit twice a year—once on the anniversary of the soldier's death, and on Memorial Day, as well as Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The estimated cost of the project is NIS40 million.

National Garden

Above the Herzl Museum and the main plaza is the Nations Garden, where trees have been planted by visiting presidents and heads of state. There are two small observation decks looking out over Jerusalem. A menorah sculpture stands opposite the main plaza entrance.

Herzl Museum

Herzl Museum, an interactive museum on the at the main entrance to Mt. Herzl, offers a glimpse into the life of Theodor Herzl, the man behind the dream of a Jewish homeland.

Stephen Norman Memorial Garden

Situated between the Herzl Museum and the Stella and Alexander Margulies Education Center, the Stephen Norman Garden is named for Herzl's grandson, Stephen Norman. He was the only member of Herzl's family to visit Palestine or to be a Zionist. It is a place for groups and students to gather to hear about Mount Herzl. On one wall of the garden, a quote from Norman, in 1945, is inscribed: "You will be amazed at the Jewish youth in Palestine...they have the look of freedom."

Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem is in the western region of Mount Herzl on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem, 804 meters above sea level and adjacent to the Jerusalem Forest. Yad Vashem is complex containing two types of sites - memorial museums and monuments, and a research institute. Memorial sites include the Holocaust History Museum and the Museum of Holocaust Art; indoor memorials such as the Children's Memorial and the Hall of Remembrance; outdoor commemorative sites such as the Valley of the Communities, the Cattle Car memorial and various sculptures; and a synagogue. The Holocaust research facilities are grouped around a research institute and include archives, a library, publishing house and an educational center, The International School for Holocaust Studies. Yad Vashem honours non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust, at great personal risk, as the "Righteous among the Nations".

The Memorial Path, leading from the entrance of Yad Vashem up to the Mount Herzl national cemetery, was established in 2003 and includes plaques that mark important events from the beginning of Zionism until to the creation of the state of Israel.

The Zionism study center

A Zionism Studies Center was begun in 2010 next to the Herzl museum and was scheduled to open in 2013.

Mitspe Karem

Mitspe Karem is an archaeological park located in the Jerusalem Forest on the west side of the Mount of Remembrance, near the Yad Vashem museum. There are finds from various periods, including the Early Bronze Age, Iron Age, possibly Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine period.

Official Ceremonies