Tens of thousands gather in Kiryas Joel for Lag B'Omer bonfire
Tens of thousands packed Palm Tree for Lag B'Omer, turning the Satmar bonfire into one of the largest Jewish gatherings of the year and a major event for Orange County.
Tens of thousands of people filled the Town of Palm Tree, formerly Kiryas Joel, for a Lag B’Omer bonfire that turned one compact corner of Orange County into the center of a major Orthodox Jewish celebration. The gathering honored Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, whose passing is commemorated on Lag B’Omer, which fell this year on Tuesday, May 5, 2026.
Satmar Grand Rebbe Aron Teitelbaum led the celebration as families, yeshiva students and community members packed the area around the fire in a display of unity and joy that has become one of the strongest public expressions of Satmar life in Monroe and Palm Tree. Local coverage described the crowd as one of the largest in the United States, and with crowd restrictions in place in Meron, Israel, the Kiryas Joel celebration was also described as the largest Lag B’Omer gathering in the world this year.
The scale of the event has grown steadily. Coverage from 2024 placed attendance at about 30,000, while another account that year said 50,000 people were gathering for the Satmar Rebbe’s Lag B’Omer celebration in Kiryas Joel. That growth has made the bonfire more than a religious milestone. It is now a major logistical moment for a village and a nearby town that must absorb a surge of visitors, vehicles and foot traffic in a tightly packed residential area.
The celebration’s structure has also evolved. In 2025, Daily Monroe reported that the hadlakah schedule shifted earlier than usual, with the Rebbe arriving earlier to share divrei Torah and lead singing without instruments, following halacha. That format underscored how carefully the event balances religious observance with the demands of staging a gathering that draws crowds far larger than those of most local civic events.
For Palm Tree and Monroe, the Lag B’Omer bonfire is both a spiritual centerpiece and a public test of coordination, one that reflects the scale of the Satmar community in Orange County. Its reach now extends well beyond the village limits, shaping traffic, crowd flow and the rhythm of life around one of the year’s largest gatherings.
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