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Zalman Teitelbaum Succession is rarely an orderly affair in the passionate, unruly world of the Satmar Hasidim. The founding Satmar rebbe, Joel Teitelbaum, died childless in 1979 and left his title and court to his nephew Moshe. Joel's widow never accepted the succession, and years of feuding ensued. That was nothing, however, compared to the battle that erupted last spring with Moshe's death. Early odds favored Aaron, 58, the eldest of Moshe's four sons, who has headed Satmar's main satellite community in the upstate New York village of Kiryas Joel since 1984 and was widely seen as rebbe-in-waiting. But younger brother Zalman, 54, Moshe's third son, gained the inside track in 1999 when his father put him in charge of the main Satmar congregation in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, the capital of worldwide Satmar. Moshe's death in April touched off months of angry maneuvering, from name-calling to lawsuits to synagogue brawls. A state court ruling in July, however, confirmed Zalman's control of the main Satmar holdings in Brooklyn, leaving him effectively in charge of what's considered the largest and one of the most influential sects in the Hasidic world.
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