Traffic alert: Where, why Ramapo roads will be crowded Wednesday
RAMAPO – Tens of thousands are expected to attend a yearly remembrance Wednesday at the grave of a historic rabbi.
The East Ramapo Central School District and SUNY Rockland Community College are planning early dismissal for students to avoid anticipated traffic snarls.
"This has happened the last number of years," Ramapo Town Supervisor Michael Specht said Tuesday. "It's something we have a plan to deal with."
Corrals were already set up along the sides of Route 306 north of Brick Church Road on Tuesday, along with electronic signs warning of traffic issues in the corridor. Temporary no parking signs line the main thoroughfare and side roads.
Lighting towers were already in place in and around the Viznitz Cemetery, where people are expected to visit the gravesite of Rabbi Chaim Zanvil Abramowitz, known as the Ribnitzer Rebbe.
Specht said tens of thousand of people come every year, but the visits stretch through a 24-hour period. Ramapo police and the Rockland County Sheriff's Office assist with traffic control throughout the period.
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Rockland Community College plans to close its main campus in Ramapo at 11 a.m. Wednesday. Students and most personnel are being instructed to leave by that time. Classes at RCC extension sites in Haverstraw, Nyack and Orangeburg will take place.
Schools in East Ramapo are letting out two hours early to avoid the expected road congestion: high schools will dismiss at 11:30 a.m.; elementary schools at the Kakiat STEAM Academy at 12:20 p.m. and the middle schools at 1:20 p.m.
Honoring the Ribnitzer Rebbe
The gathering Wednesday marks the anniversary of the death of Abramowitz.
Abramowitz, considered a righteous leader in Hasidim, died Oct. 18, 1995. Some of his closest advisers believed him to be 102.
Abramowitz lived under the Soviet regime but maintained his religious practices, according to numerous accounts. During World War II, he led his people safely through the Nazi invasion. He fled the USSR in the 1970s.
He settled in Monsey, after going to Israel, Los Angeles, Miami and Borough Park in Brooklyn.
Thousands attended his funeral at the Viznitz Cemetery on Route 306 and in the years since,tens of thousands have come from all over to honor him on his yarhzheit, or anniversary of his death according to the Hebrew calendar.
In 2020 the annual event was stopped because the area around the cemetery was in one of the coronavirus “red zones” set up by the state as cases of the virus had spiked. The color-coded zones restricted gatherings and imposed other limitations.
Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy. Follow her on Twitter at @nancyrockland.
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This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Traffic delays expected in Ramapo as thousands honor rabbi at cemetery
