School district, police prepare for 100,000 expected mourners

Central Valley - Police estimate at least 100,000 mourners will flock to the area when the Grand Rebbe of the Satmar, the 92-year-old Moses Teitelbaum, passes away. The rebbe, who lives in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, is reportedly in declining health. When he dies, his body will be transported in a hearse to his burial ground in Kiryas Joel. This mass turnout will cause gridlock in and around the village. If the funeral occurs during a weekday, acting Monroe-Woodbury School Superintendent John Canzoneri has the option of closing the schools or implementing an early dismissal to minimize having school buses getting stuck in traffic in and around the Route 6, 17, 32 intersection and nearby streets. This is the school district’s call, not the police agencies. But all police, fire and ambulance services within the area would be on call. State Police will be coordinating traffic control; Woodbury Police Chief Robert Kwiatkowski said the State Police already has asked his department to assist. Crowd control at the Kiryas Joel burial site is another issue. The casket is carried through the crowd to the burial site. A person who touches the casket is considered ‘blessed.” The Kiryas Joel synagogue holds approximately 2,000 persons, so police expect the crowds to converge on the village’s local streets. In 1979, when the founder Grand Rebbe Teitelbaum died, mourners pulled along the Quickway and ran up the embankment to the services. The population of Kiryas Joel, as well as the surrounding area, has grown ten-fold since then. Canzoneri already has sent a letter home to parents, asking them to refer to the school calendar for closing procedures which give radio stations and Web sites. “If the school superintendent closes the school, we would be derelict in our duty if we didn’t plan for the safety of own children,” Kwiatkowski said. “The parents would be incensed if they had to wait two to three hours for their children to come home from school.”