I dedicate my 9th Jerusalem mission to the hardcore fans of Israel. For all those who love and believe in the miraculous birth of modern Israel, these are the most special places to visit in the Holy Land. However, for all those who consider Israel as the Cancer of Earth, sorry folks these venues are not for you.
The hope of Jews to return to their ancestral homeland was as old as 2,500 years and it started from their exile to Babylon (586 BC). Later, the yearning for Zion intensified when the Romans destroyed their Temple in Jerusalem and deposed them from their ancestral land in 70 AD. However, the hope became a reality only nineteen centuries later, when a movement called Zionism originated. Zionism is a Jewish national movement that promotes return of Jews to their homeland - the Land of Israel - and the resumption of sovereign Jewish life there. The father of modern political Zionism was a Hungarian Jewish journalist Theodor (Binyamin Ze'ev) Herzl (1860-1904), a great visionary who came up with a dream - the return of the Jews onto the stage of history - that virtually everyone thought was impossible at the time?
A doctorate in law and a correspondent for a Viennese newspaper, Theodor Herzl was in Paris to witness the court martial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer, who was falsely accused of treason in January 1895. The mob shouted "Death to the Jews." The venomous anti-Semitic remarks shocked Herzl and he became convinced that the only solution to the Jewish problem was the mass exodus of Jews from their places of residence to a land that they could call their own. He published his seminal work, "The Jewish State" in 1896 and later founded the World Zionist Organization, which spearheaded Israel's establishment. In 1897, at the first Zionist Congress in Basel, he wrote: ‘At Basel, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. If not in 5 years, certainly in 50, everyone will know it'. Strikingly, 51 years after this visionary statement, Modern State of Israel was declared born in May 15, 1948!
Herzl died in 1904 at an early age of 44 and was buried in Vienna. In 1949, a year after Israel's independence, Herzl's body was brought to Jerusalem and buried in the Mount Herzl Cemetery. The bodies of Herzl's parents and sister were brought later, but not those of his children. Ironically, Herzl's family has a very tragic tale to tell. All his three children died tragically. Pauline his eldest daughter suffered from mental illness and died in 1930, at the age of 40, apparently of a morphine overdose. Hans his only son converted to Christianity, committed suicide when he learned of Pauline's death. He was 39. Herzl's youngest daughter, Trude, died in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust at the age of 50. Her body was never found. Nearly eight decades after their tragic deaths, two of Theodor Herzl's children were buried in Mt Herzl (2006). However, the last remaining relative of Herzl to be buried here (2007) was his grandson (son of Trude), and strange enough he also committed suicide (1946)!
Mount Herzl is a hill in Jerusalem named for Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism. Herzl's tomb lies at the top of the hill and near by is Israel's national cemetery where some of nations renowned Prime Ministers, Presidents and other prominent Zionist leaders are buried. Israel's largest military cemetery is located on the northern slope and the memorial complex Yad Vashem, which commemorates the Holocaust, lies to the west of Mt. Herzl.
Itinerary
Following the usual routine , I took Metropolin 60 from Sede Boker to Beer Sheva early morning and Egged 470 from Beer Sheva to Jerusalem. Getting down at Jerusalem Central bus station, I went outside to catch the Egged 17A to Mount Herzl. However, instead of taking 17A, I took 17 and went the opposite way. I could realise my mistake only when I found the last stop is called Manahat and not Ein Kerem. After spending a few minutes in Manahat, I took the correct bus to Mt Herzl. During these mishaps I wasted almost 1.5 hr and thus couldnt give much time to Yad Vashem. It was Shabbath eve and Yad Vashem closes by 2 pm, so had to call it a day.
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