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www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/08/15/camcemet.htm
August 15, 2005
Hasidic burial battle becomes legal affair
By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
[email protected]
Kiryas Joel – A long-simmering dispute over which faction controls the cemetery where the revered founder of the Satmar Hasidic movement is buried has finally boiled over into court.
The side that dominates in Kiryas Joel recently filed a lawsuit claiming its rivals in Brooklyn are improperly trying to assert control over the 7.8-acre burial ground off Schunnemunk Road in Kiryas Joel.
They insist the sacred ground belongs jointly to the main Satmar congregations in Kiryas Joel and Brooklyn. They also believe, incidentally, that their side controls the Brooklyn congregation – the subject of yet another pending court case.
Cherished as both the final resting place for loved ones and the site of an annual pilgrimage to the mausoleum of Satmar founder Joel Teitelbaum, the cemetery has been an occasional flash point in the conflict between the two factions.
Years ago, shouts would sometimes escalate into fights if dissident leaders entered the cemetery to join the throngs of Hasidim paying homage to the late grand rebbe on the anniversary of his death.
The annual observance, which draws 15,000 or more visitors to Kiryas Joel from Rockland County, Brooklyn and more far-flung places, has been more peaceful in recent years.
The faction that sued claims the other side caused violence last year. State police said the friction amounted to little more than young people arguing.
Police said they expect nothing worse at this year's anniversary, which falls on Aug. 31.
Part of the lawsuit deals with issues connected to the rebbe's anniversary, including the selection of organizations that can collect donations at the cemetery during the event and where their tables are positioned.
But the larger, year-round issues raised by the case are over which side decides who may be buried in the cemetery and who pockets the burial fees.
The court papers don't provide any figures, but one Kiryas Joel source said each burial costs $3,000, plus any congregation dues owed by the deceased. For families that don't belong to the majority congregation, that means the equivalent of a lifetime of dues, the source said.
The spark for the cemetery lawsuit appears to have been a letter from one defendant on June 30 declaring that the other side can no longer bury its family members in Kiryas Joel "without written permission from our Congregation."
The letter also declared that anyone who wants to set up a fundraising booth during the upcoming anniversary of the rebbe's death would need the congregation's permission
