Har Herzl

Last week Katy and I went with the students from Schechter to Har Herzl (Mount Herzl). This is where Theodore Herzl was buried after the establishment of the State of Israel, and it’s a location that was chosen deliberately – rather than seeking to inter Herzl’s body in any of the locations of Jerusalem associated with religion, tradition, or Messianism, Herzl was buried on a bare hill in Western Jerusalem chosen because there was, apparently, nothing else there. The idea was to proclaim that Herzl’s vision of the founding of the state of Israel was not a continuation of Jewish history but a revolt against Jewish history – a break with everything that the past 2000 years of history had stood for. It’s a problematic idea, but one which is very important to understand in order to understand Israel’s founding vision.

Har Herzl is also where many leaders of the State have been buried: prime ministers, presidents, and speakers of the Knesset (the latter chosen not because they’re so important, but to “represent the people,” so to speak) are eligible to be buried there. One of the most widely visisted graves is, of course, that of Yitchak Rabin, a grave that is unlike all the others surrounding it. Rabin’s has no peaceful shrubs surrounding it and instead reflects the starkness of his death.

We also spent some time in the military cemetery on Har Herzl, a place where one becomes acutely aware of the huge toll that war has taken on the State of Israel; such a high percentage of Israel’s young and promising leaders have been buried there that one can only imagine how different this country could be if the price of its defense were not so high.