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David Ben-Gurion. Behind them were the heads of the National Institutions, judges of the Supreme Court, Daniel Auster Mayor of Jerusalem, members of the city council and hundreds of notable persons, heads of institutions and representatives of settlements throughout Israel. At 10:00 AM, the courtyard was opened to the public and thousands circled in the coffin in silence, went to the adjacent streets and waited there in the blazing sun of high summer.
And so it continued, until 4:00 PM. There seemed to be no end to the swarms of humans, who entered the courtyard of the National Institutions Building in long lines. At 4:00 PM, Acting President Yosef Sprinzak, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Chief of Staff Yaakov Dori arrived at the courtyard. Eight sword-bearing IDF officers carried the coffin on their shoulders out of the courtyard to a car that awaited them, to carry the coffin to its final resting place in Jerusalem – Mount Herzl.
One of Herzl's chief assistants was David Wolffsohn. He accompanied him on his historic journey to Jerusalem in 1898 and then succeeded him as the second President of the World Zionist Organization. Wolffsohn passed away in 1914 and in his will, he bequeathed any amount required to bring Herzl's remains, as well as his and his wife's remains, to the Land of Israel. Within three years, both instructions were fulfilled and in 1952, the World Zionist Organization decided to bring to Israel the coffins of David Wolffsohn and his wife, who were buried in Cologne, Germany. The coffins arrived in Haifa by boat, were driven to Jerusalem and on July 2, 1952, a funeral ceremony was held for the couple in the square in front of the National Institutions Building. Speaker of the Knesset Yosef Sprinzak and the Chairman of the Zionist Executive Berl Locker gave speeches during the ceremony. The funeral procession departed from the National Institutions courtyard for Mount Herzl and the Wolffsohns were buried in the Herzl Family's burial plot. At the same time, an exhibit on the life of Wolffsohn and his Zionist activities was opened in the Zionist archive, in the basement of the National Institutions Building.
Over the years, the square in front of the National Institutions Building was the scene of funerals that could be defined as national. In March of 1950, the coffin of the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom Dr. Mordechai Eliash, who had died suddenly, was brought to Jerusalem. For decades, Eliash had been the Legal Advisor for the Jewish National Council. The coffin was placed in the "Yeshurun" Synagogue, which is adjacent to the National Institutions Building, and moved to the courtyard of the National Institutions Building in the morning. A large crowd had begun flowing into the square then, which was joined by the state leadership: Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, most of the government ministers, Speaker of the Knesset Yosef Sprinzak, President of the Supreme Court Moshe Smoira and his fellow judges and others.
Two weeks later, the sight repeated itself – this time to honor the parachutist Hannah Szenes, whose coffin was transferred from Budapest to Israel in late March 1950. On its way to the capital, the coffin passed through Haifa, in her kibbutz of Sdot Yam and in Tel Aviv, where a cessation of labor and commerce was declared during the coffin's passage through the streets of the city. In Jerusalem, the coffin was placed in the National Institutions courtyard and was then sent to its final resting place on Mount Herzl. Thousands arrived at the National Institutions courtyard.
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