Tomb of Rabbi Eliyahu Yosef Rabinowitz

Belying the modest size of Western New York's Hasidic community is its importance in the history of that strain of Judaism: it was to the B'rith Sholem Synagogue on the Near East Side of neighboring Buffalo where Eliyahu Yosef Rabinowitz came from his home in what's now Ukraine to serve as the first Hasidic rabbi in the United States. Rabbi Rabinowitz's stay in the area was short — from 1908 until his death just two years later — but his piety, modesty, and exceptional knowledge of the Torah so endeared him to local Jewry that his passing made national news. Today, his ohel (tomb) near the entrance to Ahavas Sholem Cemetery on Pine Ridge Road is an important pilgrimage site for Hasidim from New York City, Toronto, and elsewhere, especially on his yahrzeit (the anniversary of his death), the 13th day of Cheshvan in the Hebrew calendar, which usually falls in early to mid-November. It's said that anyone who visits his grave on that day can present a request to the rebbe and it will be granted within a year.