Herzog in Basel
Herzog in BaselHaim Tzach/GPO, Nati Harnik, Ephraim Moshe Lilien,

During his official visit to Switzerland, President Isaac Herzog will participate in tonight’s gala event celebrating the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress in Basel.

The President and the First Lady are staying at the Grand Hôtel Les Trois Rois (Three Kings Hotel) in Basel, in the same room in which Theodor Herzl slept during the Fifth Zionist Congress in 1901. The famous photograph of Herzl standing on the balcony of this hotel room became a symbol of the Zionist vision.

In honor of this festive anniversary, President Herzog reenacted Herzl’s famous balcony photo, just as his late father, Israel’s Sixth President, Chaim Herzog, did during his state visit to Switzerland in 1987. In this respect, the reenactment is a form of both personal and national closure.