Exclusive: Israeli Foreign Minister Visits Grave Site of Ribnitz Rabbi in Upstate NY

February 8, 2012  10:12 PM by Leave a comment (13) Go to comments

Avigdor Lieberman the Israeli Foreign Minister visited today Wednesday night the grave site of the late Ribnitz Rabbi in Rockland County NY.

The Rabbi originated from Russia where he had a name of a leader who showed wonders. The Rabbi passed away more than a decade ago after residing many years in the local Hasidic Community of Monsey. Lieberman is Russian-born and he fulfilled now a long-standing wish to visit the Rabbi’s grave site.

Lieberman was accompanied by his son, for the twelve minute visit at the grave site. A detail of heavily armed security officers accompanied him as well, security in the area of the cemetery was extremely tight during the visit, even the local officials were kept at a distance.

The local Town of Ramapo Police Department who was informed days ago of tonight’s visit, provided a highly protective yet low-key security escort.

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  • Aaw5952

    Does the Minister know the Rivnitze Rebbe from Kishenev? They probably both lived there the same time, being that Liberman was born in 1958 and made his aliyah in ’78 and the Rivnitze Rebbe came in the early ’70 (correct me if I am wrong)

  • Guest

    as far i know from my family was the rivnitze rabbi a anti-zionist (kanuee) he participated in allot of protests against Israel in manhatan together with satmar rabbi, i also questioned allot of rivnitze chasidim (followers) they also agreed that he was a anti-zionist so its very interesting why lieberman feels that he is welcome by the rabbi there when in fact he is the Israeli Foreign Minister which is extremely the opposite of the rivnitze rabbi’s mind. will he also visit the satmar rabbi grave site? its sounds a little purimish (well we r in the 30 days)…

    • aron

      1. He is a Jew and the Ribntzer loves Jews.
      2. To my mind I would rather have Netanyahu and Lieberman, who at least heave respect for religious Jews and the kedusha of the Land than those like the Labor/Kadima ppl who want to sell the Land (although I respect that some will see no difference).
      3. Indeed the Ribnitzer and Lieberman are both from Moldova — where there are beautiful stories about the Ribnitzer’s nissim — so there is a connection there.
      4. He may have gone with a kvit’l for the Iran situation, which c”v has the potential (Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas) to kill a lot of yidden, including religious and anti-zionist yidden.

      • jjj

        reply to 2
        Who cares what you believe….

        • A Jew

          If you answer, obviously – you do care what he believes…

          That said, if you have a reply for a comment someone made, reply in a human way, not by going personal…

          Thanks for keeping this site and the commenting on this site clean and appropriate for everyone!

  • Davecool72

    Why did he go to Rivnitze Rebba’s Grave? The rebba don’t need such bad ppl/בעל עבירה

    • A Jew

      Have you ever met the Holy Tzadik of Rivnitz that you know for a fact that he wouldn’t want to meet Mr. Lieberman?? – to the best of my knowledge, the holy Tzadik never had a problem to greet and bless any Jew, be it whoever.

      Its known that in the former USSR, he traveled long miles for days in order to help Jews (who were far from Yiddishkeit) to circumcise their children no matter what their believes…

  • Larry32

    I met the rebbi and recieved a bracha from him about 35 years ago. He was a very holy tzaddik and I met other Russians who were not particularly religious but who knew the rebbi and even got blessings from him.
    The rebbi did not differentiane between religious and non religious, he helped Jews, period. and his blessings were worth gold.

  • A Jew
  • Rosenthal41

    All this these undocumented statements assuming that the Rebbis were an Anti Zionist are falsehoods. Most Rebbis in Europe supported Zionism or at least did not oppose it. Menachem Mendel Schneerson (Lubavitch) supported Zionism. The Boyaner Rebbi supported Zionism. The Alexandover Rebbi suppported Zionism (2nd largest Chassid group in Poland) The Gerrer Rebbi refused to oppose Zionism and supported his Chassidim who served in the Israeli army. The Bostoner Rebbi was a right wing Zionist who supported the Zionist settlers. Hundreds of thousands of Mizrachi Modern Orthodox and almost all Sephardic Rabbis were Zionist.

    • Yoel

      absolutely right.
      the buhusher rebbe and the sadigerer used to say hallel on yom haatzmaut.
      there’s an excellent book by yitzchak alfasi called החסידות ושיבת ציון which discusses the hassidic rebbes who supported the zionist movement.

    • yoel

      Also, alot of people don’t know this, but the current Seret-Viznitz Rebbe was a soldier in the IDF, in his youth.

    • rabbiG

      NoT true at all! you are reinventing history! Lubavitsh wrote many antizionist writings,
      Gerer Rebbe said that even a gift from the zionist is harmful. Boyaner Rebbe was an agudist as well as the bostener rebbe the agudah was founded to fight zionism.
      The only zionist rabbi was Rabbi Kook and we can see today the consequences of that!