Hundreds of Jews, most of them from Ukraine and a few of them from Israel and the US, arrived over the past few days to pray at the gravesite of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the "Alter Rebbe," who founded the Chabad-Lubavitch hasidic movement.
The Alter Rebbe, also known as the "Ba'al Hatanya," authored the Tanya and, "Shulchan Aruch Harav."
The visitors were greeted by staff from the "Heichal Rabbeinu Hazaken Compound," which is headed by Chabad-Lubavitch emissary Rabbi Shneur Zalman Deitch, who himself was named after the Alter Rebbe.
Most of the visitors came as part of organized groups from the cities of Dnipro, Kharkiv, Poltava, Kyiv, and others.
"I am happy that despite the war, the gravesite of the Ba'al Hatanya is filled with visitors," Rabbi Deitch said. "The journey here was a challenge for all those who came, because of the war, but people did not want to lose out on the merit of being here on this holy day."