JERUSALEM (JTA) — More than 100,000 people attended the funeral of Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the head of the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
Finkel died Tuesday of a heart attack at the age of 68 and was buried the same day. He also had Parkinson’s disease.
The Chicago native was descended from a line of rabbis who led the Slabodka Yeshiva in Lithuania.
Finkel became head of the yeshiva in 1990 following the death of his father-in-law, Rabbi Beinish Finkel.
Mir is believed to be the largest yeshiva in Israel and perhaps the world. It is located in the Beit Yisrael neighborhood of Jerusalem, with two other Jerusalem branches and an affiliate in New York.
Finkel will be succeeded by his second oldest son, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Finkel, one of his 11 children.
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