Dr. Herzl’s Reburial

The Gydnia-America Polish Shipping Line has informed ex-Senator Dr. Ringel, the president of the commission appointed by the last Congress to make arrangements for the transfer of the remains of Dr. Theodor Herzl to Palestine, that it is prepared to undertake the transference to Palestine on its steamer Polonia, and to decorate the steamer in a manner fitting for the occasion.

If the offer is accepted by the commission and the Zionist Executive, the transference of Herzl’s remains would take place in the middle of March. They would be exhumed from the grave in Vienna, and taken to Warsaw, and then to Constanza where they would be put on the ship for Palestine.

The last Zionist Congress held in Praha in September, 1933, adopted a resolution, which after drawing attention to the fact that Dr. Theodor Herzl’s wish expressed in his will that his remains should be transferred to Palestine has not yet been carried out, instructed the Executive to take immediate steps to transfer his remains to Palestine from Vienna during the Spring of 1934, and not later than the 20th of Tammuz, the thirtieth anniversary of his death.

A special committee, consisting of Johann Kremenetzky and Leo Motzkin, who have since died; Adolph Boehn, Jacob de Haas, ex-Senator Ringel and M. M. Ussishkin, all old friends of Dr. Herzl and delegates to the First Zionist Congress, was appointed to see that the resolution should be carried out. The resolution emphasized that the matter is urgent on account of the existing political situation in Austria, which makes it uncertain whether conditions may not arise there before long which would make transfer later impossible.

When the Herzl memorial services were held in Palestine last June, it was reported that the Palestine Zionist Executive and the Executive of the Vaad Loumi had resolved at a Zionist meeting to arrange for the building of a mausoleum in Palestine for Dr. Herzl’s remains.