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Last updated: 6:58 am
July 14, 2008
Posted: 3:43 am
July 14, 2008

The bitter feud between the two brothers fighting for spiritual control of Brooklyn's Satmar community has spilled into the corridors of City Hall.

Their battle centers on the fiscal-year 2009 budget.

Through City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's discretionary fund, Brooklyn Councilmen David Yassky, Simcha Felder and Bill de Blasio dished out an unusually large sum to a new social-services group affiliated with Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, whose congregation is based in Rockland County's Kiryas Joel community.

Meanwhile, a rival organization tied to Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum in Williamsburg saw its funds slashed amid citywide budget cuts.

Supporters of Zalman Teitelbaum are enraged that the United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg received $150,000 less this year from the council - though it still managed to secure a hefty sum of $210,000 - as United Jewish Community Advocacy Relations and Enrichment (UJCARE), a six-month-old group affiliated with Aaron Teitelbaum, received $205,000.

UJO supporters question the fairness behind giving a new organization so much cash.

"The UJO has at least three decades of providing social services to the community in the Williamsburg vicinity and has done so in an excellent manner," said William Rapfogel, executive director of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, which works with the UJO. "To bring in an organization that has zero experience at a time when cuts are being made to those organizations with exemplary track records makes no sense."

The council typically hands out several thousand dollars to groups receiving money for the first time. Like many groups in limbo because of the recent "City Haul" slush-fund scandal, UJCARE cannot receive money until its credentials are vetted.

The new organization and the councilmen behind its allocation insist the group provides food distribution and other essential services to a broader geographic area than UJO.

Sources on both sides said Councilman Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn), who is running a difficult race for the state Senate this year, pushed for a large amount of funding for UJCARE.

"They are not the only new organization that got funding," Felder said. "The fact that [UJO and Met Council] got cut is not good, but we shouldn't be immature little children and complain about someone else getting money. The issue should be making sure that you get what you need and what you deserve."

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http://www.nypost.com/seven/07142008/news/regionalnews/council_ennared_in_rabbis_family_feud_119837.htm