The Ohel is the name of a religious shrine in Queens, New York, to which thousands of people make a pilgrimage each year. The last Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson and his father-in-law Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn (the two most recent leaders of the Chabad-Lubavitch school of Hasidic Judaism) are interred there. The gravesites of the previous Rebbes of Chabad are also referred to as ohels. Many Lubavitchers visit the shrine especially on the anniversary of Schneerson's death on the Hebrew calendar.
Visitors have a tradition of writing kvitlach — prayers on small pieces of paper — which are then torn up and tossed onto the graves. The Ohel includes an on-site fax machine which receives over 700 faxes a day, and a computer which receives 400 e-mails daily. These kvitlach are all printed and then taken to the graves, where they are torn into shreds and placed atop the graves. When the pile grows too high, the shredded notes are burned.
The presence of large numbers of pilgrims, night-time visitations, and the build-up of Chabad homes and facilities in the area has resulted in tension with the surrounding, largely African-American, community.
The Ohel is located at Montefiore Cemetery (Old Springfield Cemetery) in Cambria Heights.
