The remains of Rabbi Aaron Kotler, the revered American Orthodox leader and the late chairman of the Council of Sages of Agudath Israel, who died in New York last week, were buried here today after a funeral attended by some 20,000 mourners.
The body of the world-famous Jewish religious scholar, which was flown to Israel from New York, was carried by a picked contingent of Yeshiva students. The funeral cortege was preceded by pupils who chanted the Psalms. Traffic along the three-mile route was diverted for two hours to permit the mourners to pay final honors to their revered leader.
Israel’s entire Orthodox community was represented at the rites. Mourners included Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim, Cabinet members, Members of Parliament, Jewish Agency executive members, army chaplains, Hassidic rebbes, religious court judges and rabbis of municipalities and local rabbinical councils as well as leaders of Agudat Israel and the Mizrachi movements.
The Agudat Israel had called on its members to abstain from work or business activities between 10 a. m. and noon when the funeral was held.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
