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The leading figure of Judaism, Chaïm Kanivesky died Friday at the age of 94. We fear outbursts at the funeral.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews converge on the funeral of influential Rabbi Kanievsky, Sunday, March 20, 2022.
Hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Jews converge on Sunday at the funeral of influential Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, the “Prince of the Torah” in central Israel, where police and rescue workers are on the alert for fear of overflows.
A key figure in Judaism, Chaïm Kanivesky died Friday at the age of 94, shortly before the weekly Shabbat break, and his funeral should take place on Sunday at midday in Bnei Brak, an Orthodox city adjoining the metropolis of Tel Aviv. in the center of the country.
Authorities are expecting up to a million people for the funeral and have asked the rest of the population to avoid travel to the center of the country on Sunday for fear of traffic jams. Already, on Saturday evening, following Shabbat, an AFP journalist saw hundreds of buses massing in Jerusalem to shuttle between the holy city and the funeral in Bnei Brak.
The Israeli police said it had deployed 3,000 officers, in addition to paramilitaries for fear of overflow on the sidelines of the funeral, or even collapse of roofs where worshipers might gather to follow the funeral, less than a year following the tragedy of Mount Meron.
In April 2021, a stampede during a Jewish pilgrimage bringing together tens of thousands of people led to the death of 45 people, including children, at this site in northern Israel.
Referring to one of the largest gatherings in “Israeli history”, the director general of Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, indicated that hundreds of rescuers were already on the alert on Sunday and called on funeral attendees “not to climb on fences, roofs or traffic lights, and to keep children under supervision and drink water.”
“Prince of the Torah”
Wispy white beard and arched back, Rabbi Kanievsky, born in 1928 in Belarus, was considered a “master” and sometimes nicknamed the “Prince of the Torah” by his followers who followed his instructions to the letter.
“The rabbi made sure to always receive each person with an open heart. He was a true public leader, who from his humble home in Bnei Brak led tens of thousands of people in Israel with wisdom, common sense and rare skill,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement.
“For regarding 35 years and even more I was like a son in his home,” Sephardic Orthodox leader Aryeh Deri told Israeli television on Sunday. “Kanievsky did not belong to any current in particular, he was the leader of all Israel (…) Sephardic as Ashkenazi, Orthodox, as secular, he was both a simple and prestigious person”.
(AFP)
