Fodor's Expert Review Mount Herzl National Memorial Park
Cedars of Lebanon and native pine and cypress trees surround the entrance to Mount Herzl National Memorial Park, the last resting place of Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl and many Israeli leaders.
In 1894, the Budapest-born Herzl was the Paris correspondent for a Vienna newspaper, covering the controversial treason trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army. Dreyfus was later exonerated, but Herzl was shocked by the anti-Semitic outbursts that accompanied the trial. He devoted himself to the need for a Jewish state, convening the first World Zionist Congress, in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897. Herzl wrote in his diary that year: "If not in five years, then in 50 [a Jewish state] will become reality." True to his prediction, the United Nations approved the idea exactly 50 years later, in November 1947. Herzl died in 1904, and his remains were brought to Israel in 1949. His simple tombstone, inscribed in Hebrew with just his last name, caps the hill.
To the... READ MORE
Cedars of Lebanon and native pine and cypress trees surround the entrance to Mount Herzl National Memorial Park, the last resting place of Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl and many Israeli leaders.
In 1894, the Budapest-born Herzl was the Paris correspondent for a Vienna newspaper, covering the controversial treason trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army. Dreyfus was later exonerated, but Herzl was shocked by the anti-Semitic outbursts that accompanied the trial. He devoted himself to the need for a Jewish state, convening the first World Zionist Congress, in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897. Herzl wrote in his diary that year: "If not in five years, then in 50 [a Jewish state] will become reality." True to his prediction, the United Nations approved the idea exactly 50 years later, in November 1947. Herzl died in 1904, and his remains were brought to Israel in 1949. His simple tombstone, inscribed in Hebrew with just his last name, caps the hill.
To the left (west) of his tomb, a gravel path leads down to a section containing the graves of Israeli national leaders—among them prime ministers Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin, and presidents Zalman Shazar, Chaim Herzog, and Shimon Peres—and the country's main military cemetery. Officers and privates are buried alongside one another—they are mourned equally, regardless of rank.
The Herzl Center (on the left as you enter the park) presents an engaging, multimedia introduction to the life, times, and legacy of Israel's spiritual forebear. The program takes 50 minutes and costs NIS 30. Call ahead or check online for English-language time slots.
READ LESS
