The burial of an influential Jewish spiritual leader in Israel on Sunday drew a staggering number of attendees, with anywhere from 400,000 to 750,000 mourners said to have attended. Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, an ultra-Orthodox figurehead who was said to have read religious texts for up to 17 hours a day, died on Friday. He was 94. His funeral elicited the attention of Israeli military rescue teams, according to The New York Times, which were put on standby in case of a stampede. Large swaths of central Israel were shut down by crowds, with Israelis gathering on nearby balconies and rooftops to get as close as possible to the funeral bier. Before a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Kanievsky had been instrumental in guiding destroyed European Jewish communities out of the Holocaust. “The name of Rabbi Kanievsky will be remembered as an important part of the Torah history of the people of Israel,” Bennett said. The estimated crowd size on Sunday still fell short of the attendance at the 2013 funeral of another Haredim leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, which attracted some 850,000.
