Hundreds of New Yorkers Gather in Prayer for Hostages at Rebbe’s Resting Place

by Bruria Efune – chabad.org

In a display of support and solidarity with Israel and with each other, more than 300 men and women from New York City’s diverse Jewish communities gathered together on Tuesday night, Jan. 13, at the Ohel, the resting place of the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—and offered prayers for Israel and the safe release of the hostages.

“I’d never been to the Ohel before,” Asher Martin, a student at Yeshiva University, told Chabad.org. “But when I see how the Rebbe has impacted the world, I had a huge desire to come to the Ohel and to cry out to G‑d there for Israel, for the hostages, for our soldiers’ safety.”

People from all walks of Jewish life come to the Ohel throughout the year to ask for blessings from on high. In mid-November, 170 family members of hostages held captive by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza flew to New York for the single purpose of praying at the Ohel for their loved-ones safe return. A week before the dramatic rescue of Louis Har, 70, and Fernando Simon Marman, 60, their family members visited the Ohel with prayers on their behalf.

Rabbi Yosef Wilhem, co-director of Chabad Young Professionals of the UES, led the gathering in the reading of Psalms, “The most important thing is to say to Psalms, that’s what we did.”

Wilhelm says he was particularly impressed by the young adults and students who organized the event and brought everyone together. “It was a really nice crowd. And all because they really wanted to do something. These were people in their early twenties, who wanted to be there, and were on a mission to bring home the hostages—and what better thing to do than to go to the Rebbe’s Ohel, to pray at this holy place, and to demand from G‑d, let the hostages come home.”

Lior Morgenshtern, a 23-year-old Israeli-American student and IDF veteran, says she was inspired to organize the event after talking to many New Yorkers who had a deep longing to help their fellow Jews in Israel but needed to give it some concrete forms of expression.

As a result, the event drew students from New York University, Rutgers, Yeshiva University, Hunter College and the Fashion Institute of Technology, in addition to groups from Chabad of Chelsea and Chabad of the Upper East Side, both in Manhattan. Featured speakers included Wilhem, Rabbi Sholom Shapiro and Rabbi Manis Friedman.

The Power of Joint Prayer With Strangers

Roni Denti says the visit was “bittersweet, powerful, and captivating.”

Denti was moved to see so many Jews from across New York City from all age ranges, and from secular to religious, coming together all for one purpose, and says it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. She thinks that solidarity and joint prayer are what’s needed to unite the Jewish people in these difficult times.

“As our hearts are shattered into pieces thinking of our soldiers, our country, and our hostages, those pieces are also glued back together through our selfless love for each other,” says Denti. “Prayer is such a personal and intimate phenomenon, yet somehow praying with strangers from across New York City was the closest I have ever felt to my people. It was an experience of the ‘windows of heaven’ opening up for all of our words and cries together.”

Denti hopes that the mitzvahs, actions, and prayers of the Jewish people will shed a light on the goal to bring home their brothers and sisters. “This experience was inspiring for us to see the power of prayer, and a reminder that Hashem’s presence lies within us.”

Martin says he didn’t know how he would feel at the Ohel or during a gathering with so many Jews praying for the hostages.

“But when I was at the Ohel, I very much felt like Hashem was right in front of my face as I was speaking to Hashem and crying out to Hashem, and reading the names of hostages, praying for their safe release. I felt like Hashem was right there in that area. I felt like there was some light around me, some guidance.”

You can access a list of names of the hostages in Gaza and Psalms to say for their welfare and safe return.

To send a letter to be placed at the Ohel for the Rebbe’s guidance and intervention on high, in the age-old tradition of written prayer petitions at our holiest sites visit this page.