In one of the stranger commemorations planned for Israel’s upcoming 60th birthday, a man’s body will be disinterred in Washington, D.C., and moved halfway around the world to Jerusalem.
The body being moved is that of Stephen Norman, the only grandson of the modern Zionist movement’s founder, Theodor Herzl, and the only descendant of Herzl to take much interest in Zionism.
The move comes after a lengthy campaign by a small group of Washington-area Jews, who wanted to see Norman buried on Mount Herzl, the cemetery for Israel’s national heroes that was named for Norman’s grandfather. The Israeli establishment has resisted these efforts — in line with the country’s larger estrangement with Herzl’s family — but now, for the 60th anniversary, the impossible is set to happen.
“He was the only Zionist among Herzl’s descendants,” said Jerry Klinger, president of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation. “Bringing him to Israel is significant; it shows that we are one people.”
The reburial is set to take place in November, and while it will make for a feel-good celebration, it will also serve as a reconciliation of sorts between the Zionist establishment and the tragic, long-ignored saga of Herzl’s family.
Herzl himself died in 1904, at the age of 44, leaving behind three children. Pauline, the oldest daughter, died in a French sanatorium at 40, and Hans, the middle child, committed suicide a few days later.
Trude was the only one of Herzl’s children to marry. She and her husband, Richard Neumann, had one child, Stephan, who was sent off to England as the Nazis took over Austria. During the war, the young man (who would Anglicize his name) joined the royal British artillery regiment and was sent overseas.
His travels gave him a chance not only to get acquainted with his grandfather’s writings but also to visit Palestine. The short tour made a deep impression on Norman. In an essay he wrote after the visit, he described with amazement the “normal” younger Jewish generation he found in the land of Israel.
“Whoever they were,” Norman wrote of the children of Tel Aviv, “they had the look of freedom. I thought of the dark, sallow, unhappy Jewish children of Europe. I had seen pictures of their faces; their youthful frames had borne the features of old men and women, and now I saw these little ones who look like children again.”
But tragedy was never far away. After the war, Norman was posted in Washington, where he learned that his parents had both been killed in Theresienstadt. Norman walked over the Massachusetts Avenue bridge near the British Embassy and took his own life. The Jewish Agency gave him a quiet burial at the old Adas Israel cemetery in Southeast Washington, where he was largely forgotten for decades.
Klinger, the Washington activist, said that one of the reasons for Norman’s hopelessness was his belief that his grandfather’s dream of a Jewish state would never come true. He died 18 months before the declaration of an independent Israel.
The historic preservation society got involved with the matter five years ago, after Klinger read about Stephen Norman and learned that he was buried in Washington. In 2003 the society began campaigning for his reburial in Israel. Winning over Zionist organizations to the idea, however, proved difficult. Klinger lobbied American Zionist organizations and even schools and summer camps named after Herzl. “Nobody gave a damn,” he said.
In an act of desperation a little over a year ago, Klinger went to Norman’s gravesite in Washington and took a handful of soil. He packed it in his bag, took it to Israel and sprinkled it on Herzl’s grave. Klinger brought back to America some dirt from Herzl’s grave and placed it on Norman’s grave.
The breakthrough came after that, when the World Zionist Agency and the State of Israel arranged for the bodies of Herzl’s children — Pauline and Hans — to be moved to Israel, as Herzl himself requested in his will. The government had taken this action in response to calls from Israeli scholars who raised the issue in 2004, the centenary of Herzl’s death.
In America, the work of Klinger and his fellow activists shed light on the other forgotten descendant — and with Israel’s 60th anniversary, suddenly their effort attracted some notice.
A spokesman for the World Zionist Organization, Michael Jankelowitz, said that the organization, which owns the Mount Herzl cemetery, began to take action on the issue following the rise in interest in Israel and overseas in Herzl’s family.
“For many years, no one showed any interest in Herzl’s children, not to mention his grandson,” Jankelowitz said.
There was one final hurdle to be jumped. Since Norman committed suicide, he is not permitted under rabbinic law to be buried inside the cemetery. Lengthy research into the Herzl’s family history by Klinger and historians in Israel, however, produced a document stating that Herzl and his family suffered from a genetic mental disease known as familial depressive illness.
Norman’s body is to be exhumed in early November. After memorial ceremonies are held in Washington and New York, it will be flown to Israel for final burial at the family plot on Mount Herzl.
For Klinger, the end of the odyssey is also an opportunity to use the Herzl story for getting American Jews closer to the idea of Zionism. He is now trying to promote a program of learning Herzl’s legacy in a similar manner to that being taught in Israel since the Herzl Law was enacted three years ago.
“I suggest that once a year we have an international Herzl Day in which every school, synagogue and organization talks about his legacy,” Klinger said. “Maybe the return of Norman’s body to Israel can be the bridge we need in order to get this started.”
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This enormous struggle is finally bearing fruit. Jerry Klinger and JASHP set out to bring Herzl's last descendant, Norman, home to Israel. Against all odds, despite many discouragements, Jerry will soon have been successful. He can feel a great sense of accomplishment on that momentous day when Norman returns to Mt. Herzl, his rightful resting place. Jerry's unfailing love for Israel and its people, a generous heart, and a dream not unlike that of Theodore Herzl, account for the mitzvah we can all take pride in. What may not be as well known is that Jerry Klinger and JASHP have devoted countless years to the preservation of historical sites significant to Jewish history. He has traveled all over the US, and to sites in Europe, seeing to it that places such as the first synagogue building in a state, are memorialized with the historical markers JAHSP erects. The ones I treasure most are those in Deadwood, South Dakota, a wild west scene where one might least have expected to find such a vibrant and intriguing Jewish history. Besides sponsoring needy individuals and groups in Israel, JASHP has launched many worthy charitable projects such as Books for Israel that provides books to Israeli students needing to learn English. A shaineh dank, Jerry Klinger and JASHP, for your dreams and your steadfastness at seeing them through, and especially for your love for Amcha. Mazel Tov, and as we say in Yiddish, biz a hundret un tzvontzik.
What a sad commentary that Herzl's family was so unhappy and that this state of unhappiness may have been genetic. How sad that herzl has no living descendants.
Dear Friends: As the Coordinator of the Half-Jewish Network, I must point out an irony -- Stephen Norman was not halachichally Jewish, so Israel is preparing to honor a dead patrilineal Jew, while engaging in legal and social discrimination against thousands of living patrilineal Jews, many of whom serve in Israel's armed forces and pay its taxes. If Stephen Norman were still alive today, he would not be able to get the word "Jew" stamped on his Israeli national identity card. It is well-known to historians that Herzl's wife was the grandaughter of an intermarriage, and that his wife's maternal grandmother was a Christian, who apparently did not convert to Judaism. So Herzl's three children, and his only grandchild were not halachically Jewish either. The family was Reform/secular, and not inclined toward halachic converisons. For more information about adult children and grandchildren of intermarriage in Israel and their long struggle against legal and social discrimination, visit The Association for the Protection of Mixed Families in Israel at: http://www.mixedfamilies.rustreet.com/english/staff.php For information about adult children and grandchildren of intermarriage worldwide, visit: www.half-jewish.net I am happy to see Stephen Norman honored, as he seems to have been a very decent person, and the honor is long overdue, but it would also be nice to see the living patrilineal Jews of Israel and the Diaspora treated better by their fellow Jews and their contributions to their Jewish communities recognized. Cordially, Robin Margolis Half-Jewish Network www.half-jewish.net
Dear Mr. Klinger: I appreciate your interest in my comment. The evidence regarding Stephen Norman being a patrilineal Jew is laid out in Ernst Pawel's "The Labyrinth of Exile: A Life of Theodor Herzl," published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1989. Pawel's research suggests that Herzl's wife's maternal grandmother was a Christian, who did not convert, and married Herzl's wife's Jewish grandfather. This would make Herzl's mother-in-law, wife, three children and one grandchild not halachically Jewish. They would be considered patrilineal Jews. Pawel's research also suggests that the Herzl family suffered from manic-depression (bipolar disorder) instead of familial depressive illness. Like familiar depressive illness, bipolar disorder often causes suicides. But I admire your work having Stephen Norman's body transported to Israel and buried in the family plot. I share your belief that that is the right thing to do. Cordially, Robin Margolis www.half-jewish.net
Robin, The main problem with your comment is that Norman was a Jew. His mother was Herzl's daughter. His father, Richard Neuman was also a Jew. It is not a question of matralineal or patralineal descent that is being focused on here. It is doing what is right.
I would like to add that I have known about Stephen Theodore Norman for many years. He is buried next to my grandparents, aunt and uncle and my parents. I write them in that order because he is buried the closest to my grandparents. Growing up, when visiting the Adas Israel cemetery, I was told that my uncle (not the one buried near him), Herman Norwood, was partially responsible for having Stephen Theodore Norman buried at the Adas Israel cemetery. My uncle also raised the funds for him to have a proper headstone. I have always been proud of this piece of family history and somewhat puzzled as my uncle was not a major Zionist to my knowledge, taking such interest in the grandson of Theodore Herzl. I do remember being told that Uncle Hermie thought it was shameful for the Jewish community to not provide a proper burial and headstone for this man. When visiting the cemetery lately, my brother came up with the theory that the plot where Stephen Theodore Herzl was buried could even have been part of the family row of plots that my uncle gave up knowing that he would be buried in the neighboring cemetery, Washington Hebrew Congregation, with his wife's family, the Augensteins. It was also interesting to note that the first person buried in our family was my grandmother, Rebecca Lesser Norwood. Both she and Norman died in 1946 and are buried at the Adas Israel Cemetery.