A group of wounded Israeli soldiers touring the United States as part of the Belev Echad program sponsored by the Chabad-Lubavitch Youth Organization in Israel’s Terror Victims Project and the Chabad Israel Center of the Upper East Side returned to New York last week after stops in the Northeastern United States and Washington, D.C.

Among the final items on their agenda was a visit to the Cambria Heights, N.Y., resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. On the day before the 16th anniversary of the Jewish leader’s passing, the soldiers recited Psalms and prayed at the holy site before wrapping up their 12-day tour.

During the visit, a soldier named Ben – for security reasons, he withheld identification of his last name – donned the black prayer boxes known as tefillin, a ritual practice he hadn’t done since being wounded in Israel’s last major military operation in the Gaza Strip. He called the site at the Old Montefiore Cemetery “the most moving place we saw.” (Photos: Bentzi Sasson)


Wounded Israeli soldiers visiting the Cambria Heights, N.Y., resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, composed prayer requests to be read at the holy site.


The visit, one day before the 16th anniversary of the Rebbe’s passing, was part of the soldiers’ 12-day tour of the United States organized by the Chabad-Lubavitch Youth Organization in Israel’s Terror Victims Project and the Chabad Israel Center of the Upper East Side.


The soldiers prayer to G‑d and recited Psalms at the resting place.


One soldier called the site “the most moving place we saw.”


The soldier, named Ben, donned the black prayer boxes known as tefillin, a ritual practice he hadn’t done since being wounded in the Gaza Strip.


The soldiers placed coins in a charity box on their way out of the cemetery.