A demand that the coming Zionist Congress make definite provision for moving the remains of Dr. Theodor Herzl from Vienna to Palestine was made by Dr. Riegel, president of the political committee of the latest Zionist Congress, in an article printed in the organ of the Zionists of East Galicia, “Die Zionistische Woch.”
Dr. Riegel’s article states that the question is of pressing urgency because of the continuing spread of Hitlerism in Austria, and continues:
“At the 16th Congress at Basle, held on the thirteenth anniversary of the first Congress, a resolution to acknowledge the thirty years’ debt of the Jewish nation to Dr. Herzl by moving his remains to Palestine was unanimously adopted.
“The same decision has also been made on various subsequent occasions, but so far nothing has been done to carry it out. Dr. Max Nordau is at rest in the cemetery at Tel Aviv. Not far from his grave is that of his political enemy, Achad Ha-Am. But for the bones of Dr. Herzl no room can apparently be found in the land of his dreams.
“In Germany, and not only in Germany but all over Europe today the anti-Semitic plague is raging in its most virulent form. . . . In Germany, before the Hitlerites were strong enough to persecute living Jews they battled at night with the dust of dead ones, destroying gravestones and otherwise profaning burial grounds in about 100 German towns and cities.
“Now Vienna is being washed under by the wave of Hitlerism. Shall we permit the earthly remains of Herzl to rest any longer in a land over which the Hakenkreuz casts its shadow?
“We are at the threshold of the 18th Congress. Among the many important issues which face us, we must not lose sight of this holy duty towards our leader. Thirty years procrastination is indeed enough.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
