A source in the New York Police Department told the media that President Trump may visit the gravesite of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson to commemorate the first anniversary of the horrific massacre of Israelis by Palestinians and Hamas on October 7.
Jewish worshippers who visited the site on Rosh Hashana reported seeing the U.S. Secret Service scouting the area around the Ohel. Signs near the Ohel announce no parking on Francis Lewis Blvd on Monday. A source within the NYPD confirmed to COLlive.com that a visit is planned for Monday.
Trump is also slated to attend a memorial ceremony for the massacre following his visit.
Trump’s Jewish daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, visited the site before his previous elections with mixed results.
If Trump does visit the site, it would mark 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.
In 2018, President Trump issued a proclamation marking Education and Sharing Day, the anniversary of Rabbi Schneerson’s birth.
Rabbi Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or simply as the Rebbe, led the Chabad branch of Hasidic Jews from 1951 until his death 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’s resting place is located in the Old Montefiore Cemetery in the Cambria Heights section of Queens in New York. Known as “the Ohel” (tent) attracts both Jews and non-Jews for prayer.
