LAKEWOOD – Rabbi Shlomo Gissinger Zatzal, a prominent religious leader who was also a beloved figure in the township’s Orthodox Jewish community, died Thursday after an illness. He was 75.

Rabbi Aaron Mehlman, who has been a student of Gissinger’s for 30 years, said the loss to Lakewood is “colossal” and he observed that thousands of mourners were expected at the funeral which — as per the religious custom — is to take place the next day, at 10:30 a.m. today at Gissinger’s synagogue, Congregation Khal Zichron Yaakov at 175 Sunset Road.

“He was a person who thousands of Jews turned to for inspiration and guidance,” Mehlman said.

The rabbi explained that the personal loss to him was equivalent to the death of a father. Indeed, the grief Mehlman felt had moved him to participate in the Jewish mourning ritual of Kriah — when a mourner rips a piece of their own clothing and then wears it to express distress over the death of a loved one.

At the synagogue Thursday night, a steady number of male mourners had begun to arrive as an audio system was being set up for the funeral service.

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Lakewood Mayor Raymond G. Coles said the township was preparing for what was anticipated to be a “massive funeral” on Friday morning.

While the final details were still in the works, Lakewood Police Chief Gregory Meyer had been with the family since the rabbi’s death. The chief had scheduled an early morning planning meeting with municipal and religious leaders to prepare for a funeral in which several thousand people are expected to attend, Coles said.

“It will be a rough day for thousands of people (today),” the mayor added.

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Giorgi Holder, 68, a neighbor who had known the rabbi for 29 years, said that Gissinger — as a religious leader — was equivalent in stature to a bishop in the Christian faith.

“To us, he was someone who spoke to God, there was a holiness about him,” Holder said.

She recalled that so many sought his guidance that it was not unusual to look out from the window of her home and see cars parked in front of the rabbi’s house at 2 a.m.

He would not go to sleep until the last person had come and gone, she said.

On Thursday night, Holder was helping to make funeral plans and serve food to the mourners.

Gissinger died about 6 p.m. at Weill Cornell medical center in Manhattan.

The body of the rabbi returned to his synagogue just before midnight Thursday, when Tehillim was to be recited throughout the early morning hours. As Jewish custom dictates, mourners were to remain with the casket overnight.

Watch the video above to see the rabbi return to Congregation Khal Zichron Yaakov one last time.

The rabbi is survived by his wife Meryl and their four children.

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