The remains of the grandparents of Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl were exhumed on Wednesday 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. Herzl, who died in 1904, was the founder of the modern Zionist movement and is commemorated in a variety of ways throughout Israel.

The exhumation, which follows several years of negotiations, according to Hebrew media reports, 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.

In a statement, WZO Chairman Yaakov Hagoel said that the return of Herzl’s parents “closes a historic circle.”

“Herzl’s grandfather and grandmother are finally coming to rest and to the land, alongside their........

© The Times of Israel