Trump visits Chabad Rebbe’s Gravesite: “Connecting Nations to Israel”
On the first anniversary commemorating the Palestinian Hamas massacre of Israelis, President Trump paid a visit to the gravesite of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
While the visit was not a campaign stop, and the Republican candidate did not speak at the event, it helped strengthen the bond between Trump and Orthodox Jews. While secular Jews traditionally vote overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates, polls show that more than 80% of Orthodox Jews support Trump. Trump engaged in several rituals such as donning a Kippah (men’s head covering), reading a chapter of Psalms that is part of the Penitential prayers, placing a note on the grave, and placing a small stone on the headstone, and lit a yahrzeit (memorial) candle, as per Jewish custom.
Trump’s campaign released a statement repeating his claim that the Oct.7 massacre would not have taken place had he been president. Trump also gave charity in a box near the entrance in keeping with Jewish tradition to increase charitable giving at this time of year.
“The atrocities, including the slaughtering and capturing of innocent Israelis and Americans, that took place on Oct. 7th would have never happened if President Trump were still in the White House,” said campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, who added that Trump “can end the bloodshed caused by an emboldened Iranian terrorist regime, which is stronger and richer today from the Harris-Biden Administration’s incompetence and weak policies.”
Trump was greeted by Rabbi Abba Refson, director of the visitor’s center at the Ohel, and Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesman for Chabad-Lubavitch. Also present were Yael, Adi and Roy Alexander, parents and brother of Edan Alexander, who is currently being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza; Jerry Wartski, a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp; and two Jewish college students who are publicly speaking out against antisemitism on campus.
Rabbi Elisha Pearl, author of Make Peace and expert on the Lubavitcher Rebbe, noted the spiritual significance of Trump’s visit.
“When an event happens on a specific date, it becomes an archetype, giving significance to that date that manifests every year,” Rabbi Pearl said. “It’s not that we’re commemorating a historical event, but rather the thing itself is being reenacted, spiritually reenacted.”
“On a Yahrzeit (anniversary of a death), the neshama (soul) goes up to a higher realm. In this case, October 7 is not simchat torah. Jews would observe the Yahrtzeit of the victims on Simchat Torah, the 23rd of Tishrei as per the lunar Hebrew calendar. Trump, of course, is not Jewish so that he would commemorate their deaths on October 7 as per the solar calendar. He is connecting the non-Jewish world to this Jewish tragedy in a way that connects them to the God of Israel.”
“Trump is a great lover of Israel, as we saw in his first administration. If he is reelected, he will continue to serve by connecting the nations to Israel.”
In 2018, President Trump issued a proclamation marking Education and Sharing Day, Rabbi Schneerson’s birth anniversary.
Trump’s Jewish daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, visited the site before his previous elections with mixed results.
Trump’s visit marks the third visit by a non-Jewish head of state to the Jewish leader’s gravesite within a month. Recent visitors included Argentinian President Javier Milei, who visited the site for the fourth time last month. Milei, raised a Roman Catholic, is a known admirer of the Rebbe.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who is Catholic and known for his warm relations with the Jewish community and Israel, also visited the site last month.
Rabbi Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or the Rebbe, led the Chabad branch of Hasidic Jews from 1951 until he died in 1994. Under his direction, his followers practiced a form of outreach based on acceptance and devotion. In 1978, the U.S. Congress asked President Jimmy Carter to designate Schneerson’s birthday as National Education Day. It has been since commemorated as Education and Sharing Day. In 1994, he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his “outstanding and lasting contributions toward improvements in world education, morality, and acts of charity.” Schneerson is buried in the Old Montefiore Cemetery in the Cambria Heights section of Queens in New York. Known as “the Ohel” (tent), it attracts Jews and non-Jews for prayer.
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