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Hans Herzl is Buried in Bordeaux Jewish Cemetery

September 22, 1930
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Hans Herzl, the only son of Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, was buried yesterday afternoon in the Jewish cemetery here in the same grave with his sister, Paulina, in accordance with his last wish. Neither rabbi nor priest were present at the funeral of young Herzl who shot himself shortly after his sister’s funeral. The burial was civil.

When the body was lowered into the grave no one but W. Stolpner, Zionist leader to whom Herzl wrote his last letter, was present. Father Day, the Catholic priest who baptized Herzl in 1925 said today that the last wish of Herzl to be buried with his sister in the Jewish cemetery overrules any claim that the Catholic Church would be entitled to make.

The burial of Theodor Herzl’s son marked the first time in Jewish history that a convert was buried in a Jewish cemetery.

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