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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 571

pilgrimage

Druze clerics greet each other as they await visitng counterparts from Syria in a bus through a border barrier guarded by Israeli soldiers, near the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, on April 25, 2025. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
Israeli, Syrian relatives reunite as 650 Druze clerics visit Israel for 2-day pilgrimage
By ToI Staff and AFP
Admitted for festival at Jethro’s tomb holy site, tearful participant hopes ties ‘won’t be cut off’; community chief hails ‘historic’ event in which some met their kin for 1st time
Druze clerics greet each other as they await visitng counterparts from Syria in a bus through a border barrier guarded by Israeli soldiers, near the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, on April 25, 2025. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
April 27, 2025, 5:07 am
Israeli, Syrian relatives reunite as 650 Druze clerics visit Israel for 2-day pilgrimage
Admitted for festival at Jethro’s tomb holy site, tearful participant hopes ties ‘won’t be cut off’; community chief hails ‘historic’ event in which some met their kin for 1st time
By ToI Staff and AFP
Orthodox Jews pray near the lake at the tomb of Rabbi Nachman, the great grandson of the founder of Hasidic movement, in the town of Uman, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
October 5, 2024, 2:33 am
35,000 Jewish pilgrims come to Ukraine for Rosh Hashanah despite official warnings
‘Because I had to work hard to get here, it means more to me now,’ one visitor to Uman says
By ILLIA NOVIKOV
A group of observant Jewish men, mostly from New York and Brooklyn, visit Kibbutz Kfar Aza, close to the Israeli border with Gaza, January 3, 2024. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)
January 5, 2024, 3:34 pm
Kibbutz Kfar Aza, devastated on October 7, becomes a grim place of pilgrimage
Groups of Americans seen alongside soldiers, researchers, friends of the dead, parents of serving soldiers, and curious onlookers who want to ‘feel close’ to what happened
By Sue Surkes
Hasidic Jewish pilgrims pray at the tomb of Rabbi Nachman ahead of the Jewish new year of Rosh Hashanah, in Uman, Ukraine, on September 15, 2023. (Genya Savilov/AFP)
September 18, 2023, 10:48 am
On my umpteenth trip to Uman, I finally visited Rabbi Nachman’s grave
Distracted for years by reporting on the fanfare around the feted pilgrimage to Ukraine, I made time to actually go to the gravesite, the main focus of the journey
By Canaan Lidor
A boy watches three Israeli pilgrims sleep by their minivan in Palanca, Moldova on September 14, 2023. (Canaan Lidor / Times of Israel)
September 15, 2023, 8:47 pm
Ignoring warnings, Israelis take kids on Uman pilgrimage in war-torn Ukraine
Despite calls by Jerusalem and Kyiv to stay away this year, hundreds of devout Jews have brought their young children to the annual Rosh Hashanah celebration
By Canaan Lidor
United Torah Judaism MK Yisrael Eichler at an Internal Affairs Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, February 24, 2014. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
September 11, 2023, 2:10 am
Haredim slam Netanyahu for ‘heresy’ against God in Ukraine comment; MK blasts Zionism
In apparent coalition crisis after remark that God ‘hasn’t always protected us’ in Europe and Ukraine, UTJ MK pans PM’s ‘ignorance,’ blames Zionists for suffering during Holocaust
By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff
File: Jewish men in the street near the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in Uman, on eve of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, September 25, 2022 (Flash90)
September 10, 2023, 7:08 pm
Netanyahu warns against Uman travel: ‘God has not always protected us in Europe’
Cabinet approves funds to aid travelers anyway; PM says when Israel comes under missile attack, people head for shelter, but in Ukraine ‘there is no protection’
By ToI Staff
People gather for a protest at the Stella Maris Monastery in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, June 18, 2023. (Flash90)
July 27, 2023, 4:47 pm
At a Haifa church, Jewish pilgrims test coexistence strained by painful history
Haredi visitors outside Stella Maris say they want to pray near the presumed burial site of Prophet Elisha; churchgoers say it’s just another attempt to intimidate Christians
By Canaan Lidor
Huda Zaqqout reads from a large copy of a Muslim holy book at her home, a few weeks before she is slated to travel to Mecca for the Muslim pilgrimage of hajj, in Gaza City, May 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
June 15, 2023, 12:08 pm
‘Now I can die in peace’: After long waits, new pilgrims ready for COVID-free hajj
After 3 years in which pandemic limited attendance and long waiting lists swelled further, Muslims from Gaza, Indonesia and the US prepare for once-in-a-lifetime visit to Mecca
By Agencies and ToI Staff
Tunisian soldiers secure an area near the Ghriba synagogue following a shootout on the resort island of Djerba on May 10, 2023. (Fethi Belaid/AFP)
May 10, 2023, 5:47 pm
Death toll in Tunisia synagogue attack rises to five
Third guard dies of wounds, after two Jewish worshipers and two other guards are killed by rogue officer who opened fire on Djerba synagogue during annual pilgrimage
By Agencies
The Imam Hassen Chalghoumi (L), writer Marek Halter (R) and others prepare to take part in The Muslim March Against Terrorism in Paris on July 8, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / FRANCOIS GUILLOT)
May 10, 2023, 3:13 pm
French imam asks Israelis to continue Tunisia pilgrimage despite terror attack
Hassen Chalghoumi, who was in Djerba when two Jews were killed there, says the annual event must continue for sake of 1,000-member local Jewish community
By Canaan Lidor
Hasidic Jews pray near the gravesite of 'Wonder Rabbi' Yeshaya Steiner in Bodrogkeresztur, Hungary, April 24, 2023. (Yaakov Schwartz/ Times of Israel)
May 7, 2023, 1:38 am
‘Wonder Rabbi’ pilgrimage brings feuds, fraud and huge potential for Hungary’s Jews
As some 150,000 Orthodox Jews flock annually to Yeshaya Steiner’s grave in Bodrogkeresztur, the village’s future is at risk even as Budapest seeks to become a top Jewish center
By Yaakov Schwartz
In past years, as many as 300 people at a time have visited the Istanbul cemetery. (David I. Klein/JTA)
January 29, 2023, 12:13 pm
Orthodox pilgrimage to Kabbalist rabbi’s Istanbul grave picks up after COVID slump
Though nowhere near as packed – or rowdy – as a similar one in Ukraine, an off-the-beaten-path tomb is increasingly visited by supplicants who bring an air of quiet camaraderie
By David I. Klein
The entrance to the Circassian village of Kfar Kama with an inscription in Hebrew and Circassian saying 'welcome' December 2020. (svarshik via iStock by Getty Images)
December 20, 2022, 11:25 pm
Circassian town in northern Israel wins UN recognition as global ‘tourist village’
Kfar Kama, in lower Galilee, is one of only two Circassian communities in Israel; award ceremony set for February in Saudi Arabia
By Danielle Nagler
File: Jews pray on a street near the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in Uman, Ukraine, September 20, 2006. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)
September 21, 2022, 12:00 am
Thousands flock to Uman despite war: ‘There’s not even a thought not to come’
Some 10,000 Jewish pilgrims expected to gather in the Ukrainian city for Rosh Hashanah holiday, flying in to neighboring countries before catching a bus across the border
By Judah Ari Gross
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