Nikanor’s Cave, the ancient crypt on Mount Scopus in which lies buries Menahem Mendel Ussishkin, yesterday was the scene of a moving ceremony when representatives of 237 Palestine settlements, including Jews of every type – Ashkenazi, Yemenite, Greek, Bulgarian, Turkish, American and others, gathered to pay tribute to the late Zionist leader on the occasion of the “sheloshim” after his death.
Delegates from every rural and urban institution established on JNF land placed blue and white bags of earth from their respective settlement on Ussishkin’s grave. Each bag bore a metal plate with the name of the place from which it came inscribed upon it. Earth from twelve locations which have just been redeemed but have not yet been colonized were laid upon the bier by Dr. Abraham Granovsky, one of the triumvirate that will guide the JNF until Ussishkin’s successor is chosen by the next World Zionist Congress. The grave was covered with a carpet of blue-white bags after the ceremony.
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