Jon Huntsman visits the Lubavitcher rebbe’s gravesite

The Tomb of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe in Queens, New York. Photo by Reubenzadeh/Wikipedia

Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman visited the New York gravesite of the Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Huntsman, the former governor of Utah, visited the Queens gravesite of the late leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement last week. He was accompanied by his wife, Mary Kaye, and a number of movement luminaries, including Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, the chairman of Chabad’s educational and social services network, and Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the director of its Washington office.

Huntsman was friendly with Chabad’s outreach effort in Utah when he governed the state from 2005 to 2009.

Most recently the U.S. envoy to China, Huntsman is among the lowest polling in a field of about 10 candidates for the GOP nod, but has carved a niche for himself as a relative moderate on foreign policy and social issues.