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

Visitors at the grave site in 1996. Image by Getty

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.

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
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Fast Forward Jewish Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky reportedly to retire after 26 years in office
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.