Hundreds fly from Israel to pray for hostages at the Rebbe’s grave in Queens

In Jerusalem, Mr. Ariev said, he prayed for his child’s return at the Western Wall, a holy site where Jews leave handwritten prayers between the limestone bricks. His rabbi suggested he go on a trip to New York. On Monday evening in Queens, Mr. Ariev held a sheet of paper on which another prayer had been scribbled. “Now we can ask the same thing to the other side of the world,” he said.

The Lubavitchers follow a strict form of Orthodoxy, but many of the people who made the journey were much less religious. In Israel, Chabad – known for its open-house style synagogues and social facilities – is seen as a bridge of sorts between more secular Jews and other denominations. After more than five weeks with no word on the fate of most of the hostages, the trip was a mission for some Israelis, a pilgrimage for others. Some said it was a way to combat a feeling of powerlessness.

“I want the whole world to know how far I will go to bring my children back home,” said Mirit Regev, 50. Her 18-year-old son, Itay, and her daughter, Maya, 21, were kidnapped from a musical theater. festival in the south of the country. Ms. Regev said Itay was later seen tied up in a Hamas video and that Maya’s cellphone was located miles away in Gaza. “I’m in hell,” she said.

At Montefiore Cemetery that night, few wanted to talk about what had happened since the people they loved were captured. Israel has said an estimated 1,200 people were killed in the October 7 attack. Health officials in Gaza, part of the Hamas government, say more than 11,000 people have been killed in the Palestinian enclave since the war began. Many of the families at the shrine said they planned to go to a rally in support of Israel in Washington DC on Tuesday.

Shira Soussana said she and her family have always leaned left politically and called for peaceful coexistence. Then her sister Amit, 40, was kidnapped from a kibbutz about three miles east of Gaza. “After this happens, we feel insecure; we don’t believe in people anymore, it’s so bad,” she said, adding: “on both sides.”