June 21, 2006 Edition > Section: New York > Printer-Friendly Version
Judges Explore Dead Grand Rebbe's Authority in $500M Property Dispute
BY JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 21, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/34804
For more than a quarter century, Moshe Teitelbaum led the Satmar chasidim. The pronouncements of the grand rebbe once reverberated among thousands of families across the globe.
Two months after his death, a panel of state judges is exploring what limits, if any, existed to the scope of Teitelbaum's authority over his congregation based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The issue is a $500 million property dispute - consisting of the synagogues, schools, and property that the congregation has amassed more than 50 years of life in New York.
The specific question that faced a four-judge appellate court in Brooklyn yesterday was whether Teitelbaum had the power to expel the elderly president of the congregation from the Satmar community. One faction in a bitter succession struggle among two of the grand rebbe's sons says Teitelbaum did just that in January 2001. The court's ruling will determine which of the two factions that have formed around the sons, rabbis Aron and Zalmen, has control of assets ranging from cemetery plots to the stalled construction of one of the world's largest synagogues.
At times yesterday, the judges seemed skeptical of claims that a grand rebbe's authority over his congregation was all-encompassing and trumped a state court's authority to settle seemingly secular disputes over board elections and membership requirements.
One judge noted that the community, like other religious corporations, had well-established and oft-cited bylaws.
"What is the purpose or relevance of the bylaws if you can't subject them to judicial scrutiny?" Judge Robert Lunn asked.
A lawyer for the supporters of Rabbi Zalmen said Teitelbaum's pronouncements on who could be the congregation member were weightier than any court's reading of the bylaws on the subject.
The lawyer, Scott Mollen, responded to a question about the religious aspects of the case by saying, "If someone attacks the pope in the Vatican, you can't have a civil court judge appoint him in charge of the church."
A lawyer for Rabbi Aron's faction, which has said Teitelbaum had no authority over the community's financial matters, claimed that the other side has invoked religion to encourage the judges to defer from ruling in the dispute.
"Mr. Mollen throws the cloak of ecclesiastical issues over everything because that's the only way he can escape the bylaws," the lawyer, Kevin Plunkett, said. " What are bylaws for if some individual can snap his fingers and remove a member from the congregation board when a property dispute arises?"
One judge, Robert Spolzino, expressed doubts that such decisions were beyond the jurisdiction of the grand rebbe.
"But we're not talking about any member," Judge Spolzino said."We are talking about the grand rebbe."
Outside of court yesterday, several Satmar community members from both sides of the dispute said a court ruling for either side may well lead thousands of members to leave the synagogues and schools they and two generations before them helped to build.
"The result of this appeal will only be to decide which side has to dig into their pockets to build new institutions," the editor of a chasidic newspaper, Joel Weiss, said.
Followers of Rabbi Zalmen and Rabbi Aron say they expect the Satmar movement to ultimately divide into two distinct communities. Neither son has relinquished his claims to succeed his father. A similar case is also before the same court on appeal. The question has split the two lower court judges who have examined the issue.
