POSTHUMOUS ZIONISM: Remains of the grandparents of the founder of the ideology of the return to Israel exhumed in Belgrade, to be transferred to Jerusalem! (VIDEO)

The remains of the grandparents of Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionist movement, were exhumed yesterday from a grave in Belgrade and will be transferred to Israel in the coming days for reburial on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

Simon and Rivka Herzl will be buried beside the grave of their grandson during a state ceremony to be held on August 5, exactly 77 years after Herzl’s remains were transferred from Vienna to Jerusalem in 1949 and reburied there. According to announcements, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog will attend the ceremony.

Zionism emerged in the late 19th century

Theodor Herzl died in 1904 from heart disease and is regarded as the founder of the modern Zionist movement. Numerous monuments and institutions in Israel bear his name, and Mount Herzl is also named after him.

Zionism is a political and national movement that emerged in the late 19th century with the goal of establishing a Jewish state in the historic Land of Israel, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire, as a response to the persecution and antisemitism faced by Jewish people.

The movement achieved its goal in 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel. Today, the term Zionism most commonly refers to support for the existence and preservation of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people, although there are various interpretations and political currents within Zionism itself.

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President of the World Zionist Organization: A historic circle is being closed

The exhumation was carried out after years of negotiations and in accordance with Serbian legal and religious regulations. Representatives of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and ZAKA, an organization specializing in emergency response and victim identification, were present. The remains were then placed in specially prepared coffins for transport to Israel.

The initiative to transfer the remains was led by World Zionist Organization President Yaakov Hagoel in cooperation with the Serbian authorities and the local Jewish community.

Hagoel secured the agreement on the exhumation with the assistance of Republika Srpska President Željka Cvijanović during her visit to Mount Herzl in 2021, which was organized by the World Zionist Organization. Although the diplomatic agreement was reached several years ago, the transfer was postponed multiple times over the following four years due to security circumstances in the region and logistical difficulties.

Hagoel stated that the return of Herzl’s grandparents to Israel “closes a historic circle.”

Herzl’s grandfather and grandmother are finally coming to rest in their own country, alongside their grandson, in the heart of Jerusalem – he emphasized.

World Zionist Organization Vice President Yizhar Hess said that this act fulfills Herzl’s wish that he and his family be buried in Israel. He added that the grandparents “played an important role in Herzl’s childhood and in shaping his Zionist vision.”

🚨 According to Herzl's will: 77 years after Herzl – The remains of Shimon (Leib) and Rebecca Herzl, the grandparents of the visionary of the Jewish state, were removed from the Jewish cemetery in Belgrade on their way to burial in Israel pic.twitter.com/T7FbUyNjKd
— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) July 29, 2026

Grandparents had a decisive influence on Herzl’s ideas

Simon Herzl was a respected member of the Jewish community in Zemun and held honorary positions within that community. He was close to Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, one of the forerunners of Zionism, whose ideas had a profound influence on the emergence of the movement.

It is believed that Simon and Rivka, through their ideas and upbringing, strongly influenced Herzl’s early interest in Zionism and helped shape the thinking that later led to the movement he founded in 1897 under the name Zionist Organization, today’s World Zionist Organization.

With the burial of Herzl’s grandparents, the founder of Zionism will be surrounded by all members of his immediate family, except for his third daughter, Trude Herzl, who was killed in the Holocaust in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, and whose final resting place remains unknown.

Already buried on Mount Herzl are his parents, his sister Paulina, two of his children – Paulina and Hans – as well as his only grandson, Stephen Theodor Norman.