Two New York Rabbis Drown Near Miami
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Two rabbis from New York drowned Tuesday near Miami.
CBS2's Lou Young reported Isaac Rosenberg and Chaim Parnes were well-known members of the Satmars, the largest ultra-Orthodox Jewish group, in Kiryas Joel, Orange County and in Brooklyn.
The two patriarchs of ultra-Orthodox Judaism were swimming on a beach with no lifeguard north of Miami when disaster struck.
"It was a vacation. I think there was a whole group of them. I think it was North Miami Beach, I'm even a little sketchy on the details. It's such a sad event and it was so sudden. There was a riptide and some made it back to shore and some didn't," Satmar spokesman Michael Tobman said.
Rosenberg and Parnes drowned in the surf as an off-duty officer's attempt to save them proved futile.
Rosenberg was the president of the Satmar congregation in Williamsburg, while Parnes was a respected rabbi from upstate Kiryas Joel. The religious community in Brooklyn they left behind was jarred into instant mourning.
"I was in the middle of working -- I drive a truck. I was in the five towns and my friend told me and I said, 'Don't tell me. I grew up together with the both of them,'" Williamsburg resident Joseph Goldberger said.
Rosenberg, who was prominent in Williamsburg, was a wealthy businessman whose enterprises included Certified Lumber, which operates out of the Old Shaeffer Brewery. He also founded a religious congregation.
Parnes is more well-known in the enclave village of upstate Kiryas Joel.
The funerals are expected to be massive.
"The crowds are going to be horrendous. The friends and the families that he had, and had generated in all of these times, are going to be unbelievable," Williamsburg resident Isaac Abraham said.
Jewish tradition requires a funeral to happen as quickly as possible after death, but the bodies are still with the medical examiner in Florida and will be released in the morning and brought back to New York.
Rosenberg's body will be brought back to Brooklyn, while Parnes will be taken to Kiryas Joel. Both men will be taken to Orange County to be interred at a cemetery that was founded by Rosenberg.
