3000 Satmars at the Marriott, downtown Brooklyn
May 26, 2009
Marriott Hotel, Brooklyn, NY
click play or use manual controls to view the slideshow. button to the right for full screen [you can't watch the above flash slideshow on the iphone]
More than 3000 Satmar orthodox jews gathered at the Brooklyn Marriott to decry the real estate development in Toledo, Spain that threatens some very old jewish cemetery. Apparently the graves would be relocated and this is unacceptable to some orthodox Jews as graves should be left alone “for the eternity”.
Some view it as a way to erase Jewish historical presence in Europe. I wonder if the developers are just motivated by greed rather than ideology. These are sensitive issues and I can’t find an answer although I always feel it is a shame to destroy or deface symbols of the past.
A rabbi tells me it would be less sacrilegious to build on top of a cemetery rather than moving the graves. That for Jews and Muslim the resting place has to be left alone in peace. I think about cemeteries in Italy that after a few years the remains get collected and removed from the tomb and put in a smaller box in a little crypt. I think about that small Jewish-Portuguese cemetery in Chinatown that is a little patch in between residential buildings. And the issues with the African burial ground in downtown Manhattan.
A rabbi starts wailing and mourning for those dead 500 years ago in Spain.
More than 1000 Satmars are outside trying to get in but there is no room. The NYPD and security have to intervene.
Some hotel guests look very uncomfortable.
I find it a very interesting experience, and I find strange being the only photographer apart from the official hasidic one covering the event.
People at the beginning do not want to be photographed but then after a while they ask me for my card and if I can put these photos on my website.
Here is more info about the Jewish cemetery in Toledo
This was organized by an isolated group of hasidim, who don’t have the recognition of the entire orthodox world regarding this issue and similar ones.
Favish
27 May 09 at 15:32
not true. a lithuanian “rosh yeshiva” rabbi kalmanowitz from the mir yeshiva is seen clearly in photo 26.
joseph
27 May 09 at 18:08
But this isolated group represent the biggest and largest hasidic group in the world.
Yossi
27 May 09 at 18:29
i am not satmar however most orthodox groups even those not present do agree with the concept & are of the same opinion
we jews disagree on alot but DESECRATING GRAVES IS AN ITEM WE ALL AGREE IS UNACCEPTABLE
shmiel glassman
27 May 09 at 19:18
This Group is a small fringe group of the Satmar hasidic Sect, the mainstream Satmar sect who number over 250,000 boycotted this event.
Shaul
27 May 09 at 21:21
It is obvious that Favish never attended. Or else he couldn’t have been so mistaken. I was there. The entire building was overcrowded with many thousands of Orthodox Jews from all over. Thousands more waiting outside were not allowed in, due to overcrowding. The Rabbis who spoke were from various Orthodox backgrounds. All were Talmudic Scholars, the type who study and live by the teachings of the Talmudic Sages and Jurists, many of whom are buried in Spain. It was so moving. Most people I saw, wept.
After all the suffering of the Inquisition and Expulsion, now the holy graves of their ancestors are being desecrated, robbing away even their ability to visit and pray at their ancestors’ graves !!!
Moses
27 May 09 at 21:59
TO: Favish
you make a statment about “the entire orthodox world” i would like to know what are your credentials to make this statement
let me answer,you have none and it is obvious from your post that you are not part of the “Orthodox world”
since any Orthodox Jew knows that it is forbidden acording to Jewish law to tamper in any way or form with the dead, and every Orthordox Jew is pained when hearing of a destruction of a cemetery
Ben
27 May 09 at 22:44
The above link shows the Spanish Ambassador to the U.S. sitting in the house of the Satmar Grand Rabbi discussing the Spanish Issue.
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/34878/PHOTOS:+Spanish+Ambassador+Fernando+Villalonga+Visits+Satmar+Rebbe+Of+Kiryas+Yoel.html
shauli
31 May 09 at 11:23