Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Ahead Of 25th Anniversary Of Death, Chabad Rebbe’s Grave Draws Crowds Of Disciples

Chabad rebbe schneerson's grave

At the grave of Scheerson and his father-in-law, November 2018. Image by Getty

Saturday marks the 25th anniversary (on the Hebrew calendar) of the passing of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the last rebbe of the Lubavitcher Hasidic group and the leader of the world-wide Chabad movement. Ahead of his yartzeit, or death anniversary, his grave in Queens, New York, has seen large crowds over this past week, the AP reported.

The grave is an international landmark for people in the Chabad movement and many others for whom Schneerson is a spiritual and religious guide. It is located in a sprawling cemetery in outer Queens, bordering a quiet residential neighborhood. Schneerson rests beside Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson, his father-in-law and the previous rebbe of Chabad.

The graves are rimmed by a stone wall, around which disciples and visitors pray and write notes, which they then toss into the middle. The notes pile up, creating a small sea of pleas, requests and messages of gratitude.

Chabad rebbe schneerson's grave

Visitors at the grave site in 1996. Image by Getty

“It’s not a tourist site,” Rivky Greenberg, 19, told the AP. “It’s very rare that people will come and not feel something.”

Chabad estimates that over 400,000 people visit the grave annually — 50,000 alone around the time of the anniversary. It is open 24 hours a day, six days a week.

Politicians have visited the grave as a gesture of goodwill to the Chabad constituency and on the eve of elections, for good luck — Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner visited two days before the 2016 presidential election.

Chabad emissaries and other followers of the movement will frequently time their travels in New York City so that they can squeeze in a visit to the grave site, sometimes visiting in the midnight hours before going to the airport for an early morning flight.

To accommodate the crowds this year, Chabad has set up additional tends by the cemetery with air conditioning and refreshments.

“It’s authentic. It’s not contrived,” said Marc Stein, visiting from South Africa. “There’s no pretense here.”

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.