Prince Charles, the UK�s Prince of Wales, visited the grave of his grandmother, Princess Alice of�Battenberg on Har Hazeisim after attending the funeral of Shimon Peres last Friday. The Prince�decided to visit the grave after Malcolm Hoenlein, the Executive Vice Chairman of the�Conference of Presidents of Major American American Jewish Organizations, met the Prince at�the funeral, briefing him on the extensive efforts to secure and preserve Har Hazeisim. Mr.�Hoenlein, a prominent member of the leadership of the International Committee for the�Preservation of Har Hazeisim, told the Prince that as a result of the work of the ICPHH,�surveillance cameras were installed and police were now stationed there. �It is safe for you to�visit,� Mr. Hoenlein urged the Prince who immediately turned to an aide �I would like to visit�that wonderful place.�

At an event in the House of Commons in July marking the inauguration of a UK chapter of the�ICPHH, Prince Charles sent an emissary to congratulate the formation of the Committee. In�addition, Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia, a maternal granddaughter to Princess Alice,�personally came to the event and extended greetings. She accepted an invitation by Menachem�Lubinsky, co-chairman of the ICPHH to visit Har Hazeisim in 2017. In the only previous visit by a�royal family member to Har Hazeisim, Prince Philip, the son of Princess Alice and mother-in- law�of Queen Elizabeth, visited his mother�s grave in 1994.

Princess Alice of Battenberg, who is said to have expressed a wish to be buried on Har Hazeisim,�lies at the Church of Mary Magdalene. She was recognized by Yad Vashem as a member of the�Chaisdei Umos Haolam (Righteous Among the Nations). She is also recognized by the British�Government as a �Hero of the Holocaust� as well. These honors were granted her after it was�learned that while in Greece in 1943, she provided shelter to Jews including the wife and�children of Haimaki Cohen, a Greek Jewish parliamentarian, during the Nazi occupation.

The princess was born in 1885, initially diagnosed hearing-impaired and later diagnosed with�schizophrenia. At age 18 she was married to Prince Andrew of Greece and of Denmark. The�couple produced four daughters and a son � Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, who later�became the husband to England�s Queen Elizabeth II, and the couple produced Prince Charles�of Wales.

Princess Alice died at London�s Buckingham Palace in 1969, expressing the wish to be laid to�rest at the convent in Jerusalem. But it took more than a decade to fulfill that last wish,�inasmuch as the UK does not recognize Israel�s sovereignty over that part of its capital, where�the princess wished to be laid to rest. As a result, the British royal family has imposed strict�restrictions on official visits to Israel. The media team with Prince Charles did not report on the�visit.

According to Hoenlein, the Prince demonstrated an extraordinary interest in Har Hazeisim, even�wondering if it were possible to see the mountain from his seat on Mt. Herzl. When Hoenlein�told him that it was only a short distance away, the Prince began to seriously consider a visit,�which he ultimately made to Har Hazeisim.

Har Hazeisim is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in the world, dating back over 3,000 years�and is the resting place for over 150,000 Jews. Despite being in Israeli hands, the cemetery�remained largely neglected until May 2010 when Israel�s State Controller Micha Lindenstrauss�issued a stinging report on the neglect and abuse of one of Judaism�s holiest sites. This shocking�report prompted Avrohom Lubinsky, a Brooklyn NY businessman, to create the International�Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeisim, which now has chapters in New York, Los�Angeles, Jerusalem, Toronto, London and Amsterdam. Since then, Har Hazeisim has once again�become secure, encouraging tens of thousands of people to visit. The Committee is planning to�build a Visitor�s Center and shul, restore some 23,000 graves, continue to upgrade security by�having a wall and gates built, improve maintenance, and embark on other infra -structure�projects.