Thousands of Lubavitch Jews made a pilgrimage yesterday to the Queens gravesite of "the Rebbe" — Rabbi Menachem Schneerson — on the 10th anniversary of his death.
With prayer books in one hand and suitcases in the other, they arrived from all over the world, dressed in traditional black suits and hats, to pay their respects and ask for guidance and inspiration.
Some waited more than two hours through thunderstorms for the opportunity to leave a note for the Rebbe.
A Russian immigrant born in 1902, Schneerson turned what was a disorganized Hasidic community into an international movement set on reversing the assimilation of Jews around the globe.
And he did it throughout his 44-year leadership, almost without ever leaving Brooklyn.
Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz, 28, traveled from Moscow to the grave in Cambria Heights.
"He was perhaps New York's greatest export," he said. "Because of him, all Lubavitch consider this city the capital of the world."
Alouette is proud.
Sounds like the way the Breslovers visit the gravesite of Rebbe Nachman. And like Chabad, of course, the Breslovers never chose a successor to him.