(5 Jul 2019) It's quiet in the middle of the day on the streets of this residential neighborhood in New York City's borough of Queens — except for the steady stream of visitors coming in and out of one particular small converted house next to a cemetery.
The men and women, young and old, have made their way from around the city, the country and the world to this unassuming site, the burial place of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, to pay their respects to the leader of Judaism's Chabad-Lubavitch movement who died 25 years ago.
While visitors come year-round, the crowds grow tremendously around the anniversary of his passing, which according to the Hebrew calendar falls this year on July 6, with people sometimes waiting a few hours to spend even a couple of moments at his mausoleum, where they pray and leave notes.
Odela Shagalov traveled with her boyfriend from Los Angeles to get engaged at the gravesite.
"We've come to the rabbi to first of all thank him for all the brachos (Hebrew term for blessings) that he's helped facilitate for us from Hashem (Hebrew term for God). And then to request more blessings for our future marriage," Shagalov said.
A follower of Schneerson, Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz, called the mausoleum "a gathering of souls." A place Berkowitz describes as "a gathering of people who are coming to bear their most personal precious issues in their personal lives."
Schneerson led Chabad-Lubavitch for more than four decades as the seventh rebbe, or spiritual leader, following the death of his father-in-law, whom he is buried next to at the Montefiore Cemetery in Cambria Heights in eastern Queens. His wife's and mother-in-law's graves are a short distance away.
In those years, he was one of the most influential global leaders in Judaism, reinvigorating a small community that had been devastated by the Holocaust and pushing for all Jews to become more deeply connected to their faith and do more good in their everyday lives. He sent Chabad representatives to live all over the world.
The 25th anniversary of his passing has been widely noted, especially on Israeli social media, which is filled with tributes from politicians and commentators.
Fariba Balakame met Schneerson in the late 1980's after she arrived in the United Sates from Iran. This year, she brought her husband and daughter to visit the gravesite.
Balakame says she gets "emotional" with every visit.
Following Schneerson's death, a member of the community bought the home next to the cemetery, assuming it would become well visited, which it has been. Chabad-Lubavitch representatives estimate there are now about 400,000 visitors a year, with about 50,000 in the period surrounding the anniversary. The majority are Jewish, both Lubavitchers and not.
The facility is simple — the home's backyard and driveway were enclosed with a white corrugated metal roof and turned into a climate-controlled space where visitors can sit on benches and write notes. From there, they can walk outside to the rabbi's mausoleum, a small structure built out of gray stone walls surrounding two stone markers and a white stone pit where people can leave their notes for the rabbi. The notes are periodically collected and burned.
Around the time of the anniversary, white tents with fans and video screens are erected in the cemetery roadway next to the mausoleum, where men and women can wait their turn during busy times.
It's a low-key setup, with no pomp or lavishness, but that fits in with who the rabbi was, said Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz, a follower of Schneerson.
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