ניו יורק: האדמו"ר מסאטמר הלך לעולמו בגיל 91

האדמו"ר מסאטמר, הרב משה טייטלבאום, מת ממחלת הסרטן בגיל 91, כשלושה שבועות לאחר אשפוזו בבית החולים "הר סיני" במנהטן. מלחמת הירושה כבר החלה, למרות שהאדמו"ר הודיע בצוואתו כי בנו השלישי יירש אותו בתפקידו
אילן מרסיאנו וסוכנויות הידיעות

האדמו"ר מסאטמר , הרב משה טייטלבאום, מת הלילה (ג') בבית החולים "הר סיני" בניו יורק שבארצות הברית. הרב טייטלבאום בן 91, ששימש כנשיא העדה החרדית, סבל ממחלת הסרטן ואושפז בבית החולים שבמנהטן לפני כשלושה שבועות. 

האדמו"ר נולד בעיירה סיגט ברומניה בשנת 1915. הוא נמלט מהנאצים במהלך מלחמת העולם השנייה והיגר לארה"ב בשנת 1946, שם הקים את בית מדרשו בשכונת וויליאמסבורג בברוקלין. הוא מונה לתפקיד האדמו"ר לפני כ-26 שנים לאחר מותו של דודו, הרב יואל טייטלבאום.

בית הדין של החסידות פירסם את צוואתו של האדמו"ר, שנחתמה לפני ארבע שנים, ובה הוא מייעד כיורשו את בנו השלישי הרב יקותיאל יהודה, המכונה גם זלמן לייב ומנשלת את בנו הבכור אהרון. לפי הדיווח הצוואה נכתבה בכתב ידו של האדמו"ר ועליה חתומים גם עורך דין, רופא וגבאי מהחסידות. בית הדין הודיע שהוא מאשר את הצוואה ורואה בזלמן לייב כאדמו"ר הבא של הסאטמרים 

באותה עת הודיעה קבוצה נוספת שלא מהמוסדות הרשמיים של החסידות שהיא מכתירה את הבן הבכור לעמוד בראשות החסידות. ההערכה היא שבסופו של דבר תחולק החסידות לשני מוקדים. הבן הצעיר ישלוט במוסדות הרשמיים של החסידות בארה"ב, להוציא את אלו שבעיר מונרו. החסידות בירושלים תחולק בין שני האחים ובבני ברק ישלוט האח הגדול. כל יתר הקהילות המפוזרות ברחבי ארה"ב ובעיקר הנכסים שנאמדים במאות מיליוני דולרים, בהם אוסף יודיקה גדול, יועברו על פי הירושה לבן הצעיר. 

גורם המקורב לחסידות אמר: "מדובר במכת מחץ בקרב על הירושה, אבל לא מדובר בסוף פסוק, תהיה מלחמת עולם". האדמו"ר מינה בעבר את שני בניו לתפקידים חשובים במוסדות החסידות בניו יורק. "הדעות חלוקות בנוגע לירושה. אהרון וזלמן ימשיכו בתפקידיהם ובהמשך נראה מי מהשניים יגבר על אחיו", אמר פרופ' סמואל היילמן, מרצה לסוציולוגיה בקווינס קולג'. לדבריו "הרב היה חולה מדי על מנת לספק תשובה חד משמעית לשאלת הירושה ואולי בחר שלא להודיע על החלטתו בחייו". 

תושב ירושלים, שנמנה עם הזרם החרדי-ליטאי, סיפר ל-ynet כי החסידות הסאטמרית ראתה תהפוכות רבות בשנתיים האחרונות, עם מותם של שלושה מבכירי הקהילה. "דוגמה אחת היא תפקיד גאב"ד-ירושלים, אותו קיבל הרב יצחק טוביה וייס. מדובר באדם ליברלי יותר מקודמיו באופן יחסי".

קהילת סאטמר מונה כ-120 אלף חסידים ברחבי העולם, כאשר 65 אלף מהם מתגוררים בניו יורק. חסידי סאטמר מתנגדים לציונות ומאמינים כי רק לאחר ביאת המשיח ניתן יהיה לבסס ריבונות יהודית בארץ ישראל. 

האדמו"ר עמד בראש קהילת הסאטמרים מאז שנת 1980. הוא הותיר אחריו ארבעה בנים, שתי בנות ועשרות נכדים.

Religious authorities announce Satmar Hasidim leader

By ADAM GOLDMAN
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- The leader of an ultra-Orthodox sect who died this week arranged for an organized succession by naming one of his sons as the next grand rabbi of the Satmar Hasidim, religious authorities announced Tuesday.

In his will, Rabbi Moses Teitelbaum, who died Monday at the age of 91, recognized Zalmen Teitelbaum, the third of his four sons, as the next rebbe, or grand rabbi.

"He shall occupy my position and succeed me without any shortfall, for effective immediately I have granted him the position," Moses Teitelbaum wrote in his will.

But the decision, announced by the Satmars' Rabbinical Court, is unlikely to settle the divisive issue of succession that has pitted Zalmen Teitelbaum, 54, against the eldest brother, Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum of Kiryas Joel in upstate New York.

That is because Aron Teitelbaum has thousands of his own followers who believe he is the rightful successor.

The brothers have been feuding over the question for years. In 2004, a judge in Brooklyn refused to rule in the sons' dispute over the heir to the Satmar sect, saying the matter was for the grand rabbi to decide.

In his will, Moses Teitelbaum also directed that "not one of my descendants or among the persons within the community shall challenge or commit any act to diminish the powers of the above-mentioned appointment."

Moses Teitelbaum led the Satmar congregation in Brooklyn after the death of Grand Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum in 1979. He helped guide the fast-growing Satmar Hassidim in Brooklyn, Israel and other spots around the world.

The Satmar Hasidic sect has between 65,000 to 75,000 disciples in the United States, with almost all of them living in New York state. The biggest congregations are in Williamsburg and the town of Kiryas Joel, about 45 miles northwest of New York City.

Moses Teitelbaum was buried in Kiryas Joel early Tuesday after a service in Williamsburg that drew thousands of followers filled with intense grief.

In 1999, Moses Teitelbaum summoned Zalmen Teitelbaum back from Jerusalem, where he was serving as the Satmar chief rabbi. Upon his return, the father named the son chief rabbi of the Satmars' main synagogue in Williamsburg.

"Leaders of the Satmar community expressed the fervent hope that with the naming of Rabbi Zalmen Teitelbaum as Grand Rabbi, divisions which have afflicted this community in recent years will now heal," according to a Satmar statement released Tuesday.

HASID RABBI DIES

By PATRICK GALLAHUE and ANDY GELLER

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April 25, 2006 -- Moses Teitelbaum, the grand rabbi of the Satmar Hasidic sect, died yesterday - which will likely intensify the battle between two of his sons for control of the group, which claims tens of thousands of members worldwide and whose holdings are worth $500 million.

Surrounded by his four sons, two daughters and many of his 85 grandchildren, Teitelbaum, 92, died at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, where he had been taken nearly a month ago after falling into a coma.

Hundreds of police - following a plan prepared weeks in advance and called "Operation Sundown" - escorted the body from Manhattan, took up crowd-control positions in Brooklyn and closed down streets.

Police had also prepared for confrontations between rival groups of the sect, but there were no reports of violence last night. *--OAS Middle*

"All indications are that it will go well," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said outside the synagogue.

As word spread last night, thousands of followers hurried to attend his funeral at a Williamsburg synagogue and prepared to attend the burial early today in upstate Kiryas Joel.

Of the more than 60,000 Satmars, 40,000 live in Williamsburg, where the sect has 26 properties worth $339 million.

Most of the remaining members live in Kiryas Joel, an Orange County town 14 miles from West Point.

The two communities of Satmars have been feuding since 1999, when Moses Teitelbaum picked a younger son, Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum, to head the Williamsburg community.

Teitelbaum's will was read last night during funeral services at the Williamsburg synagogue - and in it, he again made it known that he wanted Zalman to take over.

The appointment is seen as a stepping stone to the movement's leadership and angered his oldest son, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, head of the Kiryas Joel community, who argued that succession should pass to him.

The dispute turned violent during the Simchas Torah holiday last October when supporters of Aaron tried to interrupt the service as Zalman led a procession of Torah scrolls into the Williamsburg synagogue.

Fists flew and Satmars' beards were pulled.

In February, in a suit over access to the Kiryas Joel cemetery, a judge ruled that a member of the Orange County group was the president of the sect's board of directors.

But the Williamsburg group appealed, arguing that the ruling conflicted with one by a Brooklyn judge that the courts could not intervene in what he termed a religious dispute. Last month, the appeal was granted, suspending the ruling.

Last night, mourners said it was poignant that Teitelbaum passed away the same day his first great-great-granddaughter was born.

"I guess it's lucky to see five generations in life," said Rabbi Steve Brecher.

As the throng grew outside the synagogue, a drizzle began, which mourners said was significant.

"It's written everywhere that when a great rabbi passes away . . . even the skies are letting their tears down," said a Williamsburg community leader, Isac Weinberger.

Mayor Bloomberg remembered Teitelbaum as a "gentle soul who carried himself with poise and distinction."

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/67532.htm

Amid Mourning, Satmar Succession Goes to Court

The dispute over which son of Moses Teitelbaum will succeed him as the grand rabbi of the Satmar sect of Hasidic Jews raged in and out of court for the last six years of his life.

The casket of Rabbi Moses Teitelbaum was carried through a crush of followers Monday night in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Rabbi Teitelbaum's death on Monday night appears unlikely to bring the controversy to a close. If anything, the battle seems to be escalating.

Less than two hours after the rabbi died — as tens of thousands of mourners went through the streets of Satmar enclaves for his funeral in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and his burial in Orange County — supporters of the rabbi's eldest son, Aaron Teitelbaum, obtained an order from a judge in Orange County Court.

To an untrained eye, the order appeared aimed at maintaining civil decorum during the mourning period that will follow — "a community-friendly purpose," as a spokesman for Aaron Teitelbaum's faction put it.

But supporters of the third of the rabbi's four sons, Zalmen Teitelbaum, saw in the order a sneak linguistic attack intended to solidify Aaron's claim to power. So yesterday, they went to court themselves, this time at the appellate level, and emerged with a ruling that struck much of the wording to which they objected.

The volleys continued into the evening. The Satmar rabbinical court proclaimed that Moses Teitelbaum, in his will, had named Zalmen to succeed him. A spokesman for Aaron's supporters, Richard J. Schwartz, said that it was the Satmar board of directors, not the grand rabbi or the rabbinical court, who would appoint the next grand rabbi.

And so the bitter struggle continued, even as 100,000 Satmars the world over mourned the loss of their longtime leader. People who have been observing the dispute for years do not expect a quick capitulation by either side.

"Since 2001," said David M. Pollock, associate executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, "every facet of this disagreement has ended up in the civil courts. I would expect that the issue of succession will go there, too."

The stakes are high both materially and spiritually. The Satmars, a fast-growing sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews, based in Williamsburg but spread around the world, run a vast private school system. They also have real estate holdings worth hundreds of millions of dollars, a famed matzo factory and a network of social services.

Like other Hasidim, the Satmars vest tremendous authority in their grand rabbi; he is the arbiter of every aspect of their spiritual lives as well as the community's guiding voice.

Moses Teitelbaum, who was 91 when he died, named Zalmen the head of the sect's main synagogue in Williamsburg in 1999. Years before, he had named Aaron head of the congregation in Kiryas Joel, a Satmar settlement in Monroe, N.Y., about 55 miles northwest of Manhattan. Both brothers are in their mid-50's.

Zalmen's supporters, most of whom live in Brooklyn, said the Williamsburg appointment made him the logical successor to the grand rabbi. Supporters of Aaron, most of whom live in Kiryas Joel, disagreed.

The dispute has occasionally erupted into violence. More than two dozen people were arrested in a fight in the Williamsburg synagogue last year after the judge in Orange County, Stewart A. Rosenwasser, issued another ruling that supported Aaron's position.

Despite the gathering and dispersing of huge crowds yesterday, there was little unrest. Before dawn in Kiryas Joel, the roads were jammed with the procession taking Rabbi Teitelbaum's body to the cemetery. Onlookers stood on the window ledges outside the grand rabbi's residence on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg in the afternoon, hoping to catch a glimpse of the reading of the will.

Several men who were inside said that Zalmen requested God's blessing in leading the sect and asked, "Who am I to take over this holy seat?"

In the courtrooms, the jockeying went on as ever. Judge Rosenwasser's order on Monday night instructed the New York Police Department to assist the board president of the pro-Aaron faction, Berl Friedman, "in generally carrying out his duties and obligations as president."

The wording echoed a decision that Judge Rosenwasser issued in February. But that decision was appealed, and in March, an appellate panel stopped it from taking effect until appeals were resolved. The lawyer for Zalmen's supporters, Scott E. Mollen, called the new order "an obvious effort to do an end run around the appellate division's order."

Yesterday afternoon in Brooklyn, a judge in the appellate division, Justice Joseph Covello, struck the parts of Judge Rosenwasser's order that granted powers to Mr. Friedman. Mr. Schwartz, the spokesman for Aaron's supporters, said he hoped that the appellate ruling would not affect the mourning process.

"Now that some of the controls have been removed from the initial ruling," he said, "we trust that all members of the community will continue to behave as orderly and peacefully as they have thus far."

David Weber, one of the thousands of mourners who gathered outside the grand rabbi's residence, said that while the question of who succeeds Moses Teitelbaum was crucial, peace was paramount.

"We hope whatever is going to be, will be very peaceful," he said. That, he added, would be "the best way to honor the rebbe."

Zalmen Teitelbaum, seated in foreground, with mourners in his father's house yesterday. He was named the grand rabbi in his father's will.