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Last Visited: 12/13/2007
Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum became the Satmar Rebbe in Kiryas Joel, Monroe, N.Y. and for his followers in Williamsburg, Brooklyn N.Y., Rabbi Lipa Teitelbaum became the Rav and owner of the small Zenta-Beirach Moshe Shul in Williamsburg.
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Two of Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum's sons were considered potential successors to lead the Satmar dynasty: the eldest son, Aaron Teitelbaum, and the third son, Zalman Leib Teitelbaum.
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Image:Satmarrabbishlitawhite.JPG Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, Satmar Rebbe in Kiryas Joel
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They also claim that Rabbi Friedman has become increasingly powerful due to the rebbe's illnesses and saw Rabbi Aaron as a threat.
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Rabbi Aaron's followers believe that Rabbi Friedman supported Rabbi Zalman in order to embarrass Aaron and threaten his support in Williamsburg, and is largely motivated by his own self-interest.
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Image:2006121820171831139r20aaron2.JPG Grand Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum on the Jewish festival of Hannukkah in front of the menorah
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The main argument points of the Aarons is that the Satmar congregation was unconventionally and maliciously split into 2 congregations for the sole purpose to systematically oust the then leaders of the Williamsburg congregation who supported Rabbi Aaron, by doing that, the Aarons ague, Zalman garnered a lot of outside support of people which their only agenda was to break the so called 'Satmar Monopoly' or the 'Aaron Dictatorship' , while the majority of the Congragation members and leaders were suddenly left out cold in Williamsburg.
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Furthermore, the Aarons argue, that all of the Zalman supporters in Williamsburg have no standing or right of claiming any leadership in Williamsburg since they are new-comers who joined the Zalman camp for the sake of 'split' . On the other hand the main argument point of the Zalmans is that the split, even though it's uncomfortable, was still vital and worth while, because Aaron is such a bad and evil person that it had to be established an alternative to him, and letting him lead the entire congregation would be devastating and unacceptable.
There is also a big disagreement as to what the real wish of the late Rabbe R' Moshe was.Though, both sides agree that up to the eruption of the split, at about the age 85, Moshe unequivocally wanted that the congregation should remain one and under the sole leadership of Aaron.
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Image:Stmrwedding.JPG Rabbi Moshe Friedman (the tall gray bearded person behind R' Moshe Titelbaum, in the white coat) the head caretaker and advisor of the late Rabbi Moshe, who the Aarons claim, is the one who plotted and orchestrated the split in Satmar, to score points against his arch-nemesis Rabbi Aaron, by taking advantage of Moshe's waning mental health, the Zalmans vehemently deny it, claiming the Rabbe him self split up the community at the latter stages of his life with a full conscious state of mind.
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In any event, it seems that the support for Zalman is not motivated by love towards Zalman but mainly by hatred towards Aaron, and their strong believe that there must be an alternative Rabbi to Aaron.Most of Zalman supporters do not necessarily revere Zalman or feel that he is the most qualified person to succeed the Grand Rebbe post, rather their long hatred and revenge or jealousy toward Aaron motivates them to support Zalman.
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The core supporters of Aaron are the same who have always been loyal to his father Rabbi Moshe.
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Initially Aaron's supporters claimed that they had a verbal will, dated from 1996, in which the rebbe is purported to have passed the leadership to Aaron.
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Aaron and his followers remained defiant following Zalman's coronation, declaring that "The Grand Rebbe's will does not determine succession.
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Rabbi Aaron spent the first Sabbath after his father's death in Williamsburg, setting up a tent in the playground of a local public school.Some analysts have hypothesized that this could indicate that Aaron has plans to move to Williamsburg on a permanent or semi-permanent basis to exert further pressure on his brother and gain more followers from among Zalman's power base.[18][19] Others characterized the move by both brothers as a "showdown" meant to demonstrate their relative strength, particularly Aaron, by coming out in force in his brother's territory with followers from both Kiryat Joel and Williamsburg.Template:Fact
Others, however, downplayed the event, saying that Aaron had already planned to be in Williamsburg before his father's death to celebrate the birth of his first great-grandchild.
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One decision upheld a lower court decision which refused to issue a ruling in the congregation election controversy, and the other overturned an earlier judge's arbitration in favor of Aaron, ruling that the conflict was an internal religious matter and therefore outside the scope of the court.[21] The ruling indirectly left Zalman as the de-facto in charge of all the assets in Williamsburg.Though the ruling in no way stated that any side has more rights then the other over the assets, to the contrary, the court specifically declined to give any side clear ownership.But, since there were no practical way to remove the Zalman supporters from control, it was seen as a victory to the Zalman supporters.Many observers have claimed that this latest legal development could prove to be a major turning-point in the brothers' struggle over the community and its property, though it is highly doubtful whether Aaron and his supporters will withdraw their claims to the Williamsburg territories.It also remains unclear whether the new decisions will solidify the split between the two Satmar communities, or give Zalman's faction increased momentum to make a consolidation attempt of Satmar under his leadership.
Almost immediately after the court decision, 2006, Rabbi Aaron began plans to construct a synagogue in Williamsburg.
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In another significant move by Rabbi Aaron, which indicates his intention to build a parallel empire in Williamsburg.On September 2006, which is the beginning of a new school year, Rabbi Aaron followers opened a new school for boys and girls in Williamsburg.In a speech that Rabbi Aaron gave right before the opening of the school, he said that the cost of buying buildings and hiring all the staff for the new school is a whopping $50 million dollars.Roughly 3,000 students switched from the old school and enrolled to the new school, which is about 40% of the established school ran by Rabbi Zalman.It is believed that more students will follow suit, since many are still hesitating to switch to a new unproven school.
Also, reports are circulating within the Satmars that Rabbi Aaron's followers are vehemently pursuing to buy or build a new mansion resident in the heart of Williamsburg so that Rabbi Aaron can comfortably and honorably reside in Williamsburg for half a year, presumably during the winter monthsTemplate:Fact.If this holds true - which most observant have long predicted - then at some point Rabbi Aaron will for all practical purpose be just as the "Williamsburg" Rebbe as Rabbi Zalman, being that he lives there and has all religious institutions in Williamsburg.
To this date there has been no official peace agreement or any sort of public conciliatory announcement between the two sides, the 2 brothers are avoiding meeting each other, they do not attend to each other's simchas, nevertheless by October 2006, there had been a dramatic decrease in public tensions between the brothers and their communities, for the simple reason that both sides ran out of strategically and viable moves to gain advantage against each other.There were no reports of any fighting during the Sukkot holiday and the weddings of both rebbes' children (Zalman's in Williamsburg, and Aaron's in Kiryas Joel).[23] Rabbis formerly known to be attached with one side over the other attended both weddings, though it appears that most of Zalman's supporters stayed away from the Kiryas Joel wedding.
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It is believed that if the Court of appeals renders a decision favoring Rabbi Aaron, the sides will sit down face to face to come to a peace agreement, which did not happen so far by any means.
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Aaron Teitelbaum
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Aaron Teitelbaum
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Video of very large festive assembly of Satmar Chasidim, led by Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum (34 seconds, with singing)
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