New York – Satmar Groups Bring Battle to Courtroom Again

Last week the court heard the Satmar factions outline sides of a controversy that has ravaged the community for over six years.
The dispute is a power struggle over who should succeed the late Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum, who died last year after taking over from the founder of the American Satmar community, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, who died in 1979. The sect is now divided, with one faction favoring the eldest son Aaron, and the other his younger brother Zalmen.
In May 2001, the two factions each held elections to choose officers of the board of trustees, which controls the sect’s secular matters. The result was two rival boards that both declared themselves winners.
At issue is which board controls the sect and millions of dollars in assets largely centered in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Following the election, the board backing Zalmen took control of these assets.
But the faction supporting Aaron claims the election that voted in the Zalmen board is invalid, and they are asking the court to intervene.
The question before the court is whether a secular court can decide based on congregation bylaws, or whether the dispute involves religious issues beyond the court’s domain. One side argues it is a legal technicality the courts can resolve, while the other side says the hassidic movement’s particularities, especially reverence for its spiritual leader, bar the court from any legal ruling.
The dispute has already passed through the lower courts. In the most publicized case, a judge refused to decide the controversy, arguing that resolving the dispute necessitated deliberations into religious matters barred by the First Amendment, and ruled to maintain the status quo, which effectively left the Zalmen board in control of the assets.
But the board favoring Aaron appealed and is now arguing the case is well within the court’s jurisdiction.
Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar is like other religious organizations that come under the jurisdiction of the Religious Corporations Law, and should be held accountable by the courts, they say.
The only issue on the table is whether the election held by the Zalmen camp is valid. The Aaron camp says it isn’t. “It was a sham, sponsored by a small splinter group of board members run by an unauthorized election committee appointed by this rogue group,” the brief states.
Aaron supporters say the court should use the congregation’s bylaws to judge the case, which were put in place by Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum. “This congregation is a non-profit religious organization like several thousand other organizations in New York, and we have bylaws which the trustees together with Joel Teitelbaum made because they wanted to prevent what happened over the last few years,” said Moishe Indig, a community leader and Aaron supporter.
The Zalmen board say appellants want to turn Satmar doctrine on its head by overruling the powers and authority of the late grand rebbe. They claim the rebbe endorsed their election and the secular courts are not in a position to intervene.
“Appellants would have this court don blinders and pretend that these cases involve nothing more than notice, quorum or other technical challenges to rules governing an election for the board of trustees of an ordinary religious corporation founded by members of its congregation,” the brief states. “But Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, Inc. is no such thing.”
Both sides claim to be fighting to enforce the rebbe’s wishes.
One source called it “ironic” that the Zalmen supporters are claiming to protect the late rebbe’s will, “on the ground the Aaron camp is made up of people who were devoted to Moses Teitelbaum throughout his leadership, and the Zalmen camp is made up of those who opposed Moses to begin with.”
The dispute dates back to the death of Joel Teitelbaum in 1979. He had no sons, and when he died a dispute arose over who would succeed him. The board elected Joel’s nephew Moses as heir, against the wishes of some members who thought Joel was irreplaceable. Today, those dissident members make up the Zalmen camp.
Meanwhile, as the dispute makes its way through the courts, the brothers have developed two mirroring empires. While Zalmen maintains control of the Williamsburg institutions – synagogue, schools and social services – Aaron has developed a parallel set of institutions for his followers.
In addition to Williamsburg and Kiryas Joel, where Satmar have traditionally dominated, Borough Park has become the latest playing field for the brotherly rivalry. Most of the institutions belong to the Aaron faction, but recently Zalmen has tried to strengthen his hold.
The competition is visible even on the streets, where a few weeks ago Zalmen opened a rival butcher down the block from his brother’s.
Since the split, Aaron has been at the forefront of kashrut, setting up KJ poultry, a very strict kosher poultry slaughtering house in Kiryas Joel, the Aaron stronghold.
The opening of a Zalmen butcher is seen not only as a tit-for-tat, but as an attempt to bear greater influence on kashrut standards, no small thing in the haredi world. Kashrut has often been a place where rabbis assert their authority, each showing himself to be more strict than the next.
The current court case has the potential to put an end to part of the Satmar controversy relating to control of the assets. But it is unlikely to decide the future of the sect, which most people believe will be decided by the members. Whatever ruling emerges will not determine what side the people take – that remains outside the court’s purview.

Living in San Francisco it is hard for me to understand what this Hasidic fight is all about, but when I read about the $$ Numbers (half a billion or more in real estate value) I can fathom what this is all about,Its all about the green green, but then also is the fact that all of this fortune wasn’t bought in one day, it took years and years of shnooring and giving which I can understand the feeling of why it hurts many people to watch their monies being dissipated to a group of people that didn’t belong in the community all these years

YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD. THERE IS ONLY ONE SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM.. BOTH REBBES SHOULD THROW IN THE TOWEL AND SPLIT UP THE SAME WAY WISHNITZ AND SERET SPLIT 58 YEARS AGO… NEITHER WISHNITZ NOR SERET LOST OUT.. THEY BOTH GAINED IN THE MOST BEAUTIFUL KIDDUSH HASHEM.

you have no idea what youre talking about, since when did anyone in Viznits share anything. Monsey Viznitz began from scratch – all by himself. Nothing that wasnt originally his is now his. Neither did the other rebbe shlita coincede any properties or other share for that matter.

On the same token Seret had all of its own – there was sharing whatsoever.

Nice try though

If somebody loots millions of public money, money from “Hekdesh” Money which is the blood and sweat of members of the cong.and then cries and hides behind a cloak of “religion” then you have no choice but to go to secular court, one of the ten commandments is “Lo Signov” thou shall not steal!!

One side in the Satmar power struggle portrays the issue as a cut-and-dried legal matter, one that a secular court can resolve by reading state law and congregation bylaws.

The other calls that a sterile exercise ignoring the Hasidic movement’s 60-year history and the mystical reverence in which its spiritual leader is held.

Lawyers for the two sides presented their respective views to seven judges yesterday as black coats met black robes in the state’s highest court.
For more than an hour, the Court of Appeals immersed itself in the controversy.

Taking the “cut-and-dried” stance are supporters of Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, one of two brothers seen as grand rebbe of the Satmar sect. Their attorney, Gerald Novack, told the judges the only real issue was whether the meeting at which the opposing side scheduled its election was valid. He said it wasn’t, based on the lack of a quorum and other reasons.
“You want us to install your clients in the management of the congregation?” asked Judge Robert Smith, who eventually got an affirmative response.
Smith and Chief Judge Judith Kaye questioned whether the ultra-Orthodox group’s bylaws had been obeyed quite so strictly throughout the years. Smith suggested they had been followed “intermittently.”

The challenge for supporters of younger brother Rabbi Zalmen Teitelbaum, was to explain why state laws regarding religious organizations and other nonprofits couldn’t be applied in this case.
They argue that Moses Teitelbaum — the father of the rival rabbis and Satmar grand rebbe until his death last year — sanctioned their election and expelled from the congregation a partisan of Aaron’s who’s at the center of the dispute.

“In order to agree with you, we have to accept that the grand rebbe ordained this?” Kaye asked Scott Mollen, attorney for the Zalmen side.
Mollen argues that Satmar tradition gives the grand rebbe supreme authority and places the election dispute outside the purview of secular courts.

What the judges decide will determine which faction controls millions of dollars worth of synagogues, businesses and other property, mostly in Brooklyn. It won’t affect Kiryas Joel’s institutions, which are owned separately and controlled by Aaron’s side.

So what’s the answer and what do you need to do if someone steals a half a billion dollars worth of properties? Go to a clearly biased bais din? And let the assets dissipate? Or go to court? Dina d’malchisa Dina

6:48 “As an outsider looking at this case from all angels.” Do you mean “angels” like melochim?

To the fine Esq   11:10am
You ask a good question:

Why, with all the kollel learning going on, do we see this breakdown in our community?

In true Yiddishe fashion I answer with a question.

Is it possible the breakdown in our community would be worse without Kollel learning?

Lets face it: morals and values are at the all time lowest in all kreizer. And as the saying goes: Vee es Goyisht zich… yiddished zicht.

I give no excuses for todays oilem.

I’m just delivering the unfortunate facts.

5:12 PM, I totally agree with you!

anan, October 16, 2007 3:22 PM wrote;
“Going to a civil court is the biggest Chilul Hashem ever possible, even with a “Heiter” from bais din,
“Being a “מרים יד בתורת משה” is not something a Jew, never mind a Rabbi, ever come close too.

let me re-post my earlier comment;
The same Torah who says that going to Court is not allowed, the same Torah also says some exceptions to that rule! (for example when the other party doesn’t want to go to Din Torah)

I am a post-Satmar chasid and the reason I left it, is for one and only one reason, because of the fighting and the hatred from one fellow satmar to another, and of course the huge Chilul Hashem that’s produced from all of this.

I don’t hate Satmar as some close-minded posters here.

I love all Jews alike!

Going to a civil court is the biggest Chilul Hashem ever possible, even with a “Heiter” from bais din, R’ Aron and his brother R’ Zalmen Leib are going to be severely punished from Hashem on this tremendous transgression and desecration of God’s name blessed be he.

Being a “מרים יד בתורת משה” is not something a Jew, never mind a Rabbi, ever come close too.

Shame on them!!!

maybe they have a hater to go to court from a beth din thats what they r screaming the whole time and they r serious people so what do u guys know*****with such good friends that u r for satmar who needs enemys?

The mitzvoh of Kiddush Hashem applies “be’toch benie yisroel” (amongst Jews)
So, here of this Jewish blog, we’re ripping each other apart while bemoaning the “chilul Hashem that others cause, how ironic?

http://www.nycourts.gov/courts/appeals/summaries/CasesumOct07.pdf

Summaries of cases before the Court of Appeals
are prepared by the Public Information Office
for background purposes only. The summaries
are based on briefs filed with the Court. For
further information contact Gary Spencer at
(518) 455-7711.
State of New York
Court of Appeals
To be argued Tuesday, October 16, 2007
No. 142 Matter of Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, Inc. v Kahan
No. 143 Matter of Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar of Kiryas Joel, Inc. v
Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, Inc.
These cases arise from a struggle between two factions of the Satmar Hasidic sect, one headed by Rabbi
Aaron Teitelbaum, chief rabbi of the Satmar community of Kiryas Joel in Orange County, and the other by Rabbi
Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, chief rabbi of the Satmar community in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. In May
2001, members of the rival factions held separate elections for the Board of Trustees of Congregation Yetev Lev
D’Satmar, Inc., a religious corporation that is the governing body for the Brooklyn congregation. A slate of
Rabbi Aaron’s supporters was headed by Berl Friedman, who was elected president. In the other election, a slate
of Rabbi Zalman’s supporters was headed by Jeno Kahan, who was elected president. Friedman and Kahan had
previously served as co-presidents of the corporation. Each side contends that theirs was the only authorized
election.
In Case No. 142, Friedman and members of his slate filed this proceeding under Not-For-Profit
Corporation Law § 618 to have the election held by the Kahan slate declared null and void and to have their own
election validated. Supreme Court, concluding that resolution of the dispute would require “the application of
ecclesiastic doctrine or law,” dismissed the proceeding on the ground that it presented a nonjusticiable issue. It
said the dismissal “leaves intact the status quo in terms of day-to-day operations of the Congregation and its
institutions until and unless the Grand Rebbe [the late Rabbi Moses Teitelbaum, father of Rabbi Zalman and
Rabbi Aaron] or any appropriately invested ecclesiastic tribunal rules otherwise.” The Appellate Division,
Second Department affirmed in a 3-1 decision, saying the dispute “cannot be decided by application of neutral
principles of law…. Rather, resolution of the parties’ dispute would necessarily involve impermissible inquiries
into religious doctrine and the Congregation’s membership requirements….”
Case No. 143 addresses the transfer of one half of the ownership interest in a cemetery in the Village of
Kiryas Joel from Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, Inc. (the Brooklyn Congregation) to Congregation Yetev
Lev D’Satmar of Kiryas Joel, Inc. (the Kiryas Joel Congregation). Friedman, acting as president of the Brooklyn
Congregation, obtained a Board of Trustees resolution approving the transfer and executed the deed in January
2001, after his alleged removal from office by Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum and prior to the disputed election
in Case No. 142. Supreme Court approved the transfer, concluding Friedman was president of the Brooklyn
Congregation at the time of the transfer. The Appellate Division reversed, saying the validity of the transfer was
“inextricably bound with this leadership dispute” and raised “ecclesiastical issues that are beyond the competence
of the courts….”
No. 142 For appellants Friedman et al: Gerald A. Novack, Manhattan (212) 536-3900
For respondents Kahan et al: Scott E. Mollen, Manhattan (212) 592-1400
No. 143 For appellant Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar of Kiryas Joel, Inc. and Scher:
Richard M Mahon II, Newburgh (845) 565-1100 (submitted – no appearance)
For appellant Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, Inc., by Friedman:
Kevin J. Plunkett, White Plains (914) 421-4100
For respondents Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, Inc. and Perlstein:
Scott E. Mollen, Manhattan (212) 592-1400
For respondent Kahan:
David B. Hamm, Manhattan (212) 471-8514

The same Torah who says that going to Court is not allowed, the same Torah also says some exceptions to that rule! (for example when the other party doesn’t want to go to Din Torah)

to anon. 10:23
why cant you accept the fact that lots of times there is a machlokes leshem shamayim. this is one of them. to you it doesnt seem like it. to you it seems like it’s just a fight over money, but it really isn’t. the machlokes b/w the brotheres is lesheim shamayim. it’s the chassidim that fight b/w eachother that might not be lesheim shamayim.

p.s. you are not G-d, so please dont decide why and how pple are being punished. there is a bais din shel maaleh that doesnt need your help.

b-4 bashing both sides, realize this – a person must go to court when called to court. maybe, before bashing both sides, do a bit of research and see which of the brothers brought the matter to court and which, by nature of the events, became the nirdaf. they are not both to blame for being in court – the one who filed the court case (read plaintiff) becomes the one who should be termed the rodef.

to anon. 10.43

what about the issur of shoiched ye’avver ainay chachamim? how can you judge which issur is worse?

I agree with shimon 9.36.

stamar makes everyone elses fights so small and clean

satmar dosnt care what kind of chillul hashem they do to ruin for the rest of klala yisroel around the globe

they sit in thei houses full of yidden around them with no worries

maybe its time to shape up

not everything is money!!!!!

LETS TURN THE CLOCK FORWARDS ATLEAST 140 YEARS FROM NOW.. WHAT WILL THE GENERATION THEN THINK ABOUT THESE 2 BROTHERS??THE REASON WHY WE ARE SO ENAMORED BY REB ELIMELECH AND HIS BROTHER REB REB ZISHA ZICUSOM YUGEN OLEINU WAS BASICALLY THERE MIDDOS , LOVE, AND AHAVAS YISROEL ONE FOR THE OTHER. IN 140 YEARS FROM NOW, I AM SHIVERING TO THINK WHAT WE WILL LOOK LIKE, BY HAVING SUCH KIND OF BATTLES. THESE REBBES HAVE TO REMEMBER THAT IN TODAYS DAY AND AGE EVERYTHING IS RECORDED FOR POSTERITY.. ITS NOT LIKE ITS GOING TO GO UNDER THE RUG.. THOSE DAYS ARE OVER, WHEN YOU WHERE ABLE TO PUSH THESE DIRTY POLITCS UNDER THE RUG..ALL THESE BATTLES AND WARS WILL BE THERE FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO READ, AND WATCH , AND HEAR. THERE WILL BE NOTHING LEFT FOR THE IMAGINATION…. PLEASE THERE IS MUCH MORE TO GAIN WITH AHAVAS ACHIM, AHAVAS YISROEL, AND AHAVAS HASHEM..IF JUST ONE OF THEM WOULD THROW IN THE TOWEL AND SAY THATS IT, I DONT NEED ALL OF THIS. HE WOULD BY FAR ACCOMPLISH AN ENORMOUS,AND AWESOME KIDDUSH HASHEM…

to 7:21:

FYI, Bobov is not in court. The Unger faction initially went to court and it was assingned to a heimishe judge (Judge Kramer). He told them to go to Beis Din. It is now in the Beis Din of Rabbi’s Seltenreich, Babad, Berger, Grausz and Rosenberg.

Get your facts straight!

Maybe you didn’t Bobov, you did write Bobo.

WHAT KIND OF CHASSIDUS IS THIS?
HOW DO YOU EXPECT ANYONE TO FOLLOW THEM, IF THEY THEMSELFS DON’T GET ALONG. WHAT A CHILUL HASHEM.
THIS IS THE REASON WE HAVE SO MANY TZARUS IN KLAL YISROEL.

The simple reason that this case is in court and not in Bais Din is: They can’t decide which Bais Din! Zalman’s side want’s to go to the Satmar Bais Din,But Aron side claims that Rabonim of the Satmar Bais Din are all clearly “Zalonim” – (so whats the point?) they would rather go a (non-Satmar) neutral bais Din. So by default they ended up in Court.

you think that the rabbis dont know what they’re doing? how can you even think such a thing?

on the contrary, the rabbis know that every frum person has his own oipinion of this whole situation (like who has the right to own the shul…etc..) therefore ,if they were to go to a rabbinical court, it would be an unbiased court case, and that is worse cuz shoiched ye’aver einei chachamim. and this issur is terrible. how can they go to a Jewish bais din that is bent towards on onw side?

…then we wonder why swastikas are popping up all over the place. The goyim hate us for no reason at all but when these disgraceful things linger in the news, it just fuels the fire.