Over five thousand people joined in the funeral services here yesterday for Rabbi Israel Friedmann, the famous rabbi of Czortkow, Poland, and member of the great Friedmann dynasty of Chassidic rabbis. Rabbi Friedmann died Saturday in a sanitarium here following an operation he underwent last week. He was seventy-seven years old.
Leaders and followers of Chassidism, the mystic Jewish sect which believes in worshipping God with joy, came to Vienna by special train and by airplane from all the neighboring countries. The Polish government provided Chassidic teachers and followers with special three-day passports to enable them to attend the services. Scores of Christian clergymen who had known Rabbi Friedmann during his residence here and hundreds of members of the Jewish community were in the kilometre-long funeral procession.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.