Difference between revisions of "Satmar (Hasidic dynasty)"

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==Orientation to Zionism==
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{{short description|'''Largest Hasidic court; Hungarian-origin anti-Zionist dynasty split between [[Aaron Teitelbaum]] (Kiryas Joel) and [[Zalman Teitelbaum]] (Williamsburg)'''}}
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According to the JC:
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{{Infobox religious group
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| name = Satmar
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| native_name = חסידות סאטמר
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| type = [[Hasidic]] court (Haredi Judaism)
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| main_classification = [[Hasidism]] (Hungarian / Sighet–Satmar line)
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| theology = Anti-Zionist; ''Vayoel Moshe''; three oaths
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| structure = Split since 2006 between two rebbes
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| founder = [[Joel Teitelbaum]] (1887–1979)
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| founded_date = 1905 (Satu Mare); rebuilt in New York after 1946
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| founded_place = Satu Mare (Satmar), then Kingdom of Hungary
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| leader_title = Rebbe (Kiryas Joel / Ahronim)
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| leader_name = [[Aaron Teitelbaum]] (born 1947)
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| leader_title2 = Rebbe (Williamsburg / Zalis)
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| leader_name2 = [[Zalman Teitelbaum]] (born 1951)
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| members = About 26,000 households (c. 2016); largest Hasidic group worldwide
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| area = [[United States]], [[United Kingdom]], [[Israel]] / occupied East Jerusalem, [[Belgium]], [[Canada]], [[Argentina]], [[Australia]]
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| language = Yiddish (everyday); Hebrew (liturgical)
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| headquarters = [[Williamsburg, Brooklyn]] and [[Kiryas Joel, New York]]
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}}
  
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:More importantly, however, even within Satmar the idea of actively supporting, in any way whatsoever, organisations that oppose the state of Israel, be they Far Right, Far Left, Islamist or anything else, is considered bizarre and in most cases actually forbidden.
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'''[[Satmar]]''' (Yiddish: סאטמאר) is a [[Hasidic]] court originating in Satu Mare (Satmar) in historic Hungary, rebuilt in New York after the Holocaust by [[Joel Teitelbaum]] (1887–1979). It is the largest Hasidic group in the world. [[Marcin Wodziński]]’s mid-2010s count from internal telephone books put Satmar at about 26,000 households — some 20 per cent of all Hasidim — split after 2006 between two sons of [[Moshe Teitelbaum (Satmar)|Moshe Teitelbaum]] (1914–2006): [[Aaron Teitelbaum]] in [[Kiryas Joel]] and [[Zalman Teitelbaum]] in Williamsburg.<ref name="Magid">Shaul Magid, [https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/satmar-anti-zionist The Satmar Are Anti-Zionist. Should We Care?] ''Tablet'', 21 May 2020.</ref>
  
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:The founder of Satmar, Rabbi [[Yoel Teitelbaum]], was absolutely clear that the PLO and other bodies were antisemitic murderers. He would never in a million years have supported a politician who was present at a wreath laying ceremony for the Munich Olympics terrorists.<ref>https://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/time-to-stop-the-shraga-stern-farce-1.494581</ref>
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Satmar is the principal organised bearer of Hungarian Haredi anti-Zionism in the United States. It rejects [[Agudat Yisrael]] participation in Israeli coalitions, funds institutions that refuse state money through vehicles such as [[Keren Hatzolah]], and heads the [[Central Rabbinical Congress]] in North America while remaining tied to the [[Edah HaChareidis]] in Jerusalem. It simultaneously condemns [[Neturei Karta]] when the latter joins Iranian or Palestinian platforms, and it operates as a New York voting machine that endorses secular Democrats and Republicans. That mix — theological rejection of the state, material support for Haredim who live in it, and American political brokerage — is the court’s public profile.<ref name="JCStern">The Jewish Chronicle, [https://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/time-to-stop-the-shraga-stern-farce-1.494581 Time to stop the Shraga Stern farce] ''The Jewish Chronicle''.</ref><ref name="TOIAaron">Times of Israel, [https://www.timesofisrael.com/head-of-satmar-hasidic-sect-castigates-followers-for-admiring-israel-idf/ Head of Satmar Hasidic sect castigates followers for admiring Israel, IDF] ''Times of Israel''.</ref>
  
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[[Shaul Magid]] writes:
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== History ==
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:While many people know of the general position of Teitelbaum and his Satmar community toward Zionism, few have actually read his works and understood the arguments from within the dense and complex context in which they were written. This is unfortunate, because his two anti-Zionist works, ''[[Vayoel Moshe]]'', published in 1959, and ''[[Al Ha-Geulah ve ‘al ha-Temura]]'' (On Redemption and Exchange, taken from Ruth 4:7), a response to the Six-Day War published in 1967, offer detailed and intricate arguments that, contrary to what many believe, Zionism poses an imminent danger to the Jewish people and a deflection, rather than a procurement, of the impending messianic era. <ref name="Shaul">Shaul Magid [https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/satmar-anti-zionist The Satmar Are Anti-Zionist. Should We Care?] Few Jews today agree with the late Satmar rebbe’s attacks on Zionism. All the more reason to read them. Tablet. May 21, 2020</ref>
 
  
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:Significantly, in the hundreds of dense pages of Teitelbaum’s works, he rarely mentions Zionism or Zionists outright, although he alludes to them often, usually with terms such as “minim” or “apikorsim” (heretics) or “horsei dat” (destroyers of religion). These terms are not particular to him but were commonly used by ultra-Orthodox thinkers in reference to Zionists. Teitelbaum almost never discusses Zionist thinkers, although in his essay on the Hebrew language, “Essay of Lashon ha-Kodesh” he often refers to Zionist educational initiatives and debates regarding the secularization and profanation of the Hebrew language. I have found only one reference in a halachic responsa where he mentions [[Abraham Isaac Kook]], the first chief rabbi of Mandate Palestine and architect of contemporary religious Zionism, and only in passing. Teitelbaum is not interested in direct polemics but rather creating a primary Torah source warning against the heresy of Zionism. His two major works are therefore replete with long digressions on talmudic dicta and their commentaries. They are clearly not meant for secular Jews, certainly not secular Zionists. In fact, one not conversant in the language of the beit midrash (“study house”) would have a difficult time unpacking his midrashic and halachic arguments.
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[[Joel Teitelbaum]], from the Sighet / [[Siget (Hasidic dynasty)|Sighet]] Teitelbaum line, became rabbi of Satu Mare and built a court marked by Hungarian Haredi stringency and hostility to Zionism and to [[Agudat Yisrael]]’s political bargains. He survived Bergen-Belsen on the Kastner train, reached Palestine, then settled in Williamsburg in 1946 and reconstituted the court among Hungarian survivors.<ref name="Magid" />
  
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:These works are directed to his ultra-Orthodox community, who he believed were being, or could be, seduced by the Zionist narrative. This is particularly true with ‘Al Ha-Geulah, written when Teitelbaum saw the Six-Day War interpreted as a miraculous victory for Zionism. He often noted, half-jokingly, that all these secular Jews who didn’t believe in miracles suddenly started talking about miracles when it came to the Six-Day War. But more significantly, these works also represent a Jewish political theology, drawing on thousands of traditional sources, deployed to caution against the dangers of succumbing to the contemporary Zionist heresy.<ref name="Shaul"/>
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He founded ''[[Der Yid]]'', the girls’ schools called Beis Rochel and the boys’ yeshivas Torah VeYirah, the [[United Talmudical Seminary]], [[Bikur Cholim]] (1957, organised by [[Alte Feiga Teitelbaum]]), refugee aid under Rav Tuv, and in 1953 the [[Central Rabbinical Congress of the United States and Canada]]. He served as chief rabbi of the [[Edah HaChareidis]] from 1953 until his death while living in New York. In 1959 he published ''Vayoel Moshe''; after the 1967 war he published ''Al Ha-Geulah ve-Al Ha-Temurah'' against treating the conquest of Jerusalem and the West Bank as messianic miracle.<ref name="Magid" />
  
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:In addition, Teitelbaum believed, like many religious Zionists, especially after the Holocaust, that we stand on the cusp of messianic redemption. We often misunderstand Teitelbaum’s anti-Zionism as diametrically opposed to the Zionism of [[Abraham Isaac Kook]]. In truth, Kook and Teitelbaum disagree less than we think. From deep within the canonical tradition, both had a similar task: to make sense of the secular nature of Zionism and how that could square with traditional understandings of both catastrophe and redemption. Kook argued dialectically, using a romantic and mystical mindset, that the secular and largely anti-religious nature of early Zionism was a necessary, albeit temporary, deviation from tradition that would be transvalued in the immanent redemptive future. Teitelbaum, who lived more deeply in the binary framework of talmudic literature, also believed that Zionism played a central role in the coming redemption, except that for him its role was not a Kookian inversion of tradition for the sake of redemption, but the pre-messianic heresy that Jews were required to resist in order for redemption to come.
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He founded [[Kiryas Joel]] in the Town of Monroe, Orange County, in the mid-1970s as an insular Yiddish enclave. The village later became coterminous with the Town of Palm Tree. Census figures show explosive growth: about 13,000 in 2000, 33,000 in 2020, around 39,000 on ACS 2024 five-year estimates, with other official estimates near 44,000 after 2020–24 growth of about one third.<ref name="JPostKJ">Glenn C. Altschuler, [https://www.jpost.com/judaism/article-694801 Satmar’s micro-society: Kiryas Joel is a mirror of the American people] ''Jerusalem Post'', 27 January 2022.</ref><ref name="CensusReporter">Census Reporter, [http://censusreporter.org/profiles/16000US3639853-kiryas-joel-ny/ Kiryas Joel, NY] ACS 2024 5-year, accessed September 2026.</ref>
  
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:Zionism was thus the false messiah that needed to be rejected for the true messiah to arrive. If Jews succumb to the temptation of the “final test,” and Teitelbaum knew that temptation was strong given its post-Holocaust context, redemption will come, but it will come though catastrophe. As Jewish historian [[Amos Funkenstein]] put it, according to Teitelbaum “[a] catastrophe is imminent, after which only a few, the ‘remnants of Israel,’ will survive to witness the true redemption. Indeed, Teitelbaum’s whole argument is embedded in the apocalyptic premise that the true redemption, through divine miracle, is very close at hand.” Kook believed that secular Zionism had to be embraced in order to be overcome; Teitelbaum believed Zionism had to be rejected in order to avoid catastrophic redemption. Another similarity between Kook and Teitelbaum is that both viewed the messiah, false and true, in terms of the more abstract idea of Zionism. For Kook, Zionism was the embodiment of messianism, for Teitelbaum it was its satanic prelude.
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[[Moshe Teitelbaum]] succeeded in 1979. After his death in 2006 the court split: [[Aaron]] kept Kiryas Joel and a Williamsburg hall at Kent and Hooper; [[Zalman]] kept the historic Rodney Street Yetev Lev and Williamsburg institutions. ''Der Yid'' is identified with Zalman; ''Der Blatt'' (from 2000) with Aaron. The brothers were publicly estranged for about two decades, speaking in 2020, and appeared together at a White House meeting with [[Donald Trump]] in September 2026 over welfare, prison conditions and the Israeli draft.<ref name="YWNTrump">The Yeshiva World, [https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/israel-news/2594035/historic-white-house-visit-inside-rebbes-extraordinary-meetings-with-trump-and-vance.html Historic White House visit] ''The Yeshiva World'', 4 September 2026.</ref>
  
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:If we think Teitelbaum’s position is unique in its extreme rejection of Zionism we would be mistaken. In general terms, Teitelbaum’s ideological commitments against Zionism are not new, but part of a much longer trajectory of traditional anti-Zionism that stems back to the early 20th century in the work of [[Hayyim Elazar Shapira of Munkacz]] (1868-1937), the “Old Settlement” Jews in Palestine, and, later, Neturei Karta in Israel. This anti-Zionism was also shared by much of the prewar ultra-Orthodox world, from Lithuanian rabbinic giant [[Elhanan Wasserman]] (1874-1941) to [[Yitzhok Zev Soloveitchik]] (1886-1959); and much of the Soloveitchik dynasty; and the Lubavitcher Rebbes [[Shalom Dov Schneershon]] (1860-1920) and [[Yosef Yizhak Schneershon]] (1880-1950), among many others.
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== Geography ==
  
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:The difference between Teitelbaum and many of his colleagues was that only Teitelbaum spent significant intellectual capital developing a political theology that not only reacted to the circumstantial instantiation of Zionism as heresy but placed it in a theological context that has its roots in the biblical narrative, for example, the Israelite rebellion of the golden calf, Job’s blasphemous response to his suffering, the Israelites’ rebellion against Moses in the desert, and the history of miracle in the Israelite and Jewish tradition. In addition, Teitelbaum rejected the largely pragmatic acquiescence to Zionism in groups like [[Agudat Yisrael]], viewing them like the righteous who were fooled into serving the golden calf in the Sinai desert.<ref name="Shaul"/>
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=== United States ===
  
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:In his dissertation on Teitelbaum, [[Menachem Keren-Krantz]] of [[Tel Aviv University]] writes, “Most Jews and Orthodox rabbis [after the Holocaust] were sympathetic to the Jewish state, even if they were suspicious of its secularism and the success of religion [in Israel] in the coming years. For the first five years, R. Yoel [Teitelbaum] was the only one who continued to maintain a staunch anti-Zionist position which had emerged [earlier] from the schools of radical Orthodoxy in Transylvania and its environs.” Until the late 1950s, however, Teitelbaum did not publish anything substantive on the subject but made his views known in oral sermons and in various media such as the Yiddish newspaper Der Yid, which he founded in New York and was widely read in the Yiddish-speaking ultra-Orthodox community. By the late 1950s, seeing the ultra-Orthodox community softening toward what he considered the Zionist heresy, he decided to publish his views in book form, in Vayoel Moshe.<ref name="Shaul"/>
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* '''South Williamsburg, Brooklyn''' — historic centre; Satmar-majority among Pupa, Vien, Klausenburg, Vizhnitz, Nitra, Krasna. Zalman’s Yetev Lev on Rodney Street; Aaron’s larger hall at Kent and Hooper. Community estimates put the wider Hasidic population of South Williamsburg in the tens of thousands.<ref name="ShulMap">Shul Map, [https://shulmap.com/neighborhoods/williamsburg/ Williamsburg Shuls] accessed September 2026.</ref>
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* '''[[Kiryas Joel]] / Town of Palm Tree, Orange County''' — Aaron’s seat; all-Satmar village; 8,000-family claims in faction literature; 24,000 pupils claimed across the two flagship school systems (12,000 each) in 2023 faction publications.<ref name="ShtetlSchools">Shtetl, [https://www.shtetl.org/article/satmar-community-touts-24-000-students-in-flagship-school-systems-highlighting-rapid-growth-and-its-broader-impact Satmar community touts 24,000 students] ''Shtetl'', 12 December 2023.</ref>
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* '''Borough Park; Monsey; Bloomingburg / Woodbury / Chester satellites; Lakewood; Los Angeles.'''
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* '''Montreal.'''
  
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If Satmar New York schools were a public system they would rank among the state’s largest after New York City, Buffalo and Rochester.<ref name="NYT2006">New York Times, [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/25/nyregion/25teitelbaum.html report on Teitelbaum succession] ''The New York Times'', 25 April 2006.</ref>
  
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=== United Kingdom ===
  
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:The head of the Satmar Hassidic sect has accused his followers of increasingly admiring Israel for its military and political accomplishments, imploring them to maintain the Hasidic group’s hardline anti-Zionism. Addressing thousands of Satmar members at Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum lamented what he called a “tremendous and terrible spiritual decline” among his followers. “According to the rumors I heard, [people] are excitedly talking about the news of [the Israelis’] accomplishments, how smart they are, how they succeed politically and militarily, and about their heads of government,” Teitelbaum told the crowd in an address in Yiddish on Sunday, according to a Hebrew translation from the Kann public broadcaster.  The head of the Satmar Hassidic sect has accused his followers of increasingly admiring Israel for its military and political accomplishments, imploring them to maintain the Hasidic group’s hardline anti-Zionism.Addressing thousands of Satmar members at Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum lamented what he called a “tremendous and terrible spiritual decline” among his followers. “According to the rumors I heard, [people] are excitedly talking about the news of [the Israelis’] accomplishments, how smart they are, how they succeed politically and militarily, and about their heads of government,” Teitelbaum told the crowd in an address in Yiddish on Sunday, according to a Hebrew translation from the Kann public broadcaster. “We must yell gevalt, gevalt! To where have we come?” he declared. “We have no part in Zionism. We have no part in their wars. We have no part in the State of Israel.” The Satmar, one of the largest Hasidic groups in the world, is staunchly anti-Zionist and does not recognize the State of Israel, maintaining a Jewish state should not exist until the Messiah appears.
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Stamford Hill remains the British centre (Beis Rochel / Beis Ruchel girls’ schools in Hackney and Salford). From 2016 a mixed Haredi colony on [[Canvey Island]], Essex, was planted by young Satmar-affiliated householders around [[Joel Friedman]] of [[Interlink]] / the [[Pinter Trust]], without a resident rebbe; the group is loosely tied to [[Aaron Teitelbaum]]. Satmar is the largest Hasidic presence there but the settlement is not an exclusive Satmar court town.<ref name="Canvey">K. Revue, [https://k-larevue.com/en/postcard-from-canvey-island/ Postcard from Canvey Island] accessed September 2026.</ref> Manchester / Salford holds Beis Rochel / Beis Ruchel schools.
  
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:“We’ll continue to fight God’s war against Zionism and all its aspects,” Teitelbaum said. The Satmar rabbi also spoke out against draft legislation regarding military service for ultra-Orthodox seminary students in Israel. “We declare there can be no compromise,” he said. “We won’t agree to any compromise regarding the [military] draft law for yeshiva students.” Teitelbaum’s remarks came as the coalition is haggling over legislation addressing mandatory military service for ultra-Orthodox seminary students. Earlier this week, the head of the ultra-Orthodox [[United Torah Judaism]] party gave an “unequivocal” ultimatum that his faction will bolt the government if legislation is not passed in the next seven weeks exempting members of his community from mandatory military service. Deputy Health Minister [[Yaakov Litzman]]’s threat, not his first of this nature, comes ahead of a September deadline set by the High Court of Justice for the Knesset to re-legislate a previous exemption that the court disqualified on the grounds that it violated principles of equality. In September 2017, the High Court of Justice struck down a law exempting ultra-Orthodox men engaged in religious study from military service, saying it undermined the principle of equality before the law. However, the court suspended its decision for a year to allow for a new arrangement to be put in place, giving the government the option to pass a new law. After a similar ultimatum was made by [[UTJ]] during the Knesset’s winter session, coalition partners reached a last-minute deal to cooperate on the contentious issue in order to reach an agreement before the deadline. But a compromise agreement still remains elusive, with Defense Minister [[Avigdor Liberman]] vowing that his staunchly secular Yisrael Beytenu party would not fold in the face of demands made by their ultra-Orthodox coalition partners.<ref>https://www.timesofisrael.com/head-of-satmar-hasidic-sect-castigates-followers-for-admiring-israel-idf/</ref>
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=== Israel and occupied territory ===
  
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===Satmar and Neturei Karta===
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Satmar maintains communities in [[Jerusalem]] (including Shikun Satmar between Ezrat Torah and Tel Arza) and [[Bnei Brak]], with smaller groups in [[Elad]] and [[Beit Shemesh]]. Factional geography in Israel is often described as Zalman-leaning in Jerusalem and Aaron-leaning in Bnei Brak, each on the order of hundreds of families rather than tens of thousands.
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Some [[Neturei Karta]] members are [[Satmar (Hasidic dynasty)|Satmar]] Hasidim and so there is occasional public hostility from the Satmar towards [[Neturei Karta]] .
 
  
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====2006====
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[[Joel Teitelbaum]] headed the [[Edah HaChareidis]], the anti-Zionist communal and kashrut body in Jerusalem that also includes [[Dushinsky]], [[Toldos Aharon]], [[Toldos Avraham Yitzchak]], Spinka and some Breslov and Perushim circles. [[Keren Hatzolah]] raises diaspora money for yeshivas and poor families in the land of Israel who refuse Israeli state budgets. That is material presence inside the Green Line and in Haredi neighbourhoods of municipal Jerusalem, including occupied East Jerusalem frameworks, without Satmar recognition of the state’s legitimacy.
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:Are there limits to anti-Zionism? Typically anti-Zionist Orthodox sector issues condemnation of seven Orthodox Jews who attended Iranian Holocaust denial conference last week
 
  
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:The Satmar Hassidism Court published an unprecedented statement calling on the public to disassociate themselves from the seven Neturei Karta members who visited Iran to attend the Holocaust denial conference this week. The Satmar movement printed an official placard, with bold black lettering, publicly denouncing “fanaticism, and those committing insane acts to walk hand in hand with the Arabs.” The court further ordered that the offenders be shunned and their actions be condemned. It slams the offenders for “joining in desecrating the name of the heavens. The declaration expresses astonishment at how a few people “dared attend a special conference of the nations of the world that despise Israel (may the names of the evil rot), deny the Holocaust, and deny and belittle the immensity of the evil and murder of those killed for sanctifying the lord; they desecrated the name of the heavens.” Residents of the Orthodox neighborhood of [[Mea Shearim]] said that the Orthodox leaders could not stand the fact that those individuals who visited Iran identify themselves as [[Satmar]] Jews, and thus stain the name of Orthodoxy. The Satmar Orthodox group is the largest Orthodox sector worldwide, numbering some 120,000 people, and holds adamant anti-Zionist views. [[Yitzhak Weiss]], an editor of a Hassidic journal, told Ynet: “The rabbinate issued the declaration to attack those Orthodox who represented Orthodox Judaism at the Holocaust denial conference. What they did there is a simple crime against humanity.”<ref>https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3340592,00.html</ref>
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Satmar does not build named settler towns comparable to [[Beitar Illit]] (Haredi-Zionist / Agudah housing). [[Aaron Teitelbaum]] has blamed Jews “living in the territories” for violence that follows, a line consistent with opposing Religious-Zionist settlement while still funding anti-draft, anti-state Haredi life in the same land.<ref name="YWNTerritories">The Yeshiva World, [https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/244926/satmar-rebbe-of-kiryas-yoel-its-their-fault-for-living-in-the-territories.html Satmar Rebbe of Kiryas Yoel: it's their fault for living in the territories] ''The Yeshiva World''.</ref>
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====2023====
 
  
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=== Elsewhere ===
  
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Antwerp; São Paulo; Melbourne; Argentina.
  
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:Rabbi Yekusiel Yehuda Teitelbaum, a.k.a. Reb Zalman Leib, one of two Satmar Rebbes and the son of the Rebbe Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, on Sunday night, attacked the sect of Neturei Karta who have been demonstrating in New York City in support of Hamas and against the Jewish State. “There are those who do not have any ancestral tradition, and carry out actions independently, because they think they understand more than the late Tzaddikim,” the Rebbe said, referring to the fringe group that advocates the “peaceful dismantling” of Israel because its very existence constitutes rebellion against God. “Unfortunately, we see how far they have strayed from the path,” the Rebbe said. “They are walking around the world together with the Arabs, with those who shout without any shame and support the murders, they walk with them in broad daylight with the Shtreimel and the gown and shout together with the haters of Israel and murderers of souls. This is a terrible desecration of the name of heaven, to strengthen murderers in the name of the Holy Torah and in the name of heaven.” The Satmar movement is considered anti-Zionist and presents itself as the ideological guardian of the entire Haredi public. They are the biggest contributors to the Haredi community and institutions that do not receive budgets from the State of Israel. However, unlike Neturei Karta, they maintain ties with pro-Zionist Haredi communities.<ref>https://www.jewishpress.com/news/jewish-news/haredim-news/satmar-rebbe-condemns-neturei-karta-for-supporting-hamas-murders/2023/11/13/</ref>
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== Orientation to Zionism ==
  
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Satmar anti-Zionism is not quiet non-recognition. ''Vayoel Moshe'' and ''Al Ha-Geulah'' treat the state as heresy that delays redemption: a golden-calf / false-messiah test. [[Shaul Magid]] stresses that [[Joel Teitelbaum]] almost never names Zionist thinkers; he writes in beit-midrash idiom against ''minim'' and ''apikorsim'' for an ultra-Orthodox audience tempted after the Holocaust and 1967. Magid argues that [[Abraham Isaac Kook]] and Teitelbaum both read Zionism messianically: Kook as a necessary secular husk to be transvalued; Teitelbaum as the satanic prelude that must be refused or redemption will come only through catastrophe. Teitelbaum’s lineage runs through [[Hayyim Elazar Shapira of Munkacz]], the Old Yishuv, early [[Neturei Karta]], [[Elhanan Wasserman]] and interwar Lubavitch anti-Zionism — but only he built a full political theology and rejected [[Agudat Yisrael]]’s pragmatic seating in Zionist institutions as service of the calf.<ref name="Magid" />
  
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==Skver and the Satmar==
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[[Menachem Keren-Kratz]] notes that for the first post-Holocaust years Teitelbaum was almost alone among prominent rabbis in holding the pre-war Transylvanian hard line; he preached in ''Der Yid'' before putting the system in book form in 1959 when he judged Haredi opinion to be softening.<ref name="Magid" />
  
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:The Hasidic community – especially Satmar and the less-populous Skver group – is veering ever more towards extremism. If it isn’t a new law prohibiting long robes traditionally worn on Shabbat, it is a ban on the internet, smartphones, concerts, strawberries, raspberries, grapes (for the slight chance they contain insects), eye makeup by makeup artists (yes, this is the case in Kiryas Joel), and now the innocent images of three-year-old girls.
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[[Aaron Teitelbaum]], addressing Nassau Coliseum, later rebuked Hasidim for admiring Israeli military and political “accomplishments”: “We have no part in Zionism. We have no part in their wars. We have no part in the State of Israel.” He rejected any compromise on drafting yeshiva students.<ref name="TOIAaron" /> The [[Jewish Chronicle]] has insisted that Satmar theology also forbids backing PLO, Islamist or far-left campaigns against Jews: [[Joel Teitelbaum]] called such organisations antisemitic murderers.<ref name="JCStern" />
  
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:This radicalized Hasidism does not include Chabad. Even though they are, by definition, Hasidic, the Lubavitchers’ representation as the poster children of Hasidism in America and worldwide is a gross misrepresentation. Many other Hasidic groups shun Chabad as a separate, modernized entity – akin to the Modern Orthodox – and whose chumros (stringencies) are a lot more lax than the bona fide Hasidim. The media-savviness of Chabad and comfortable relationship with secularism exemplifies their worldliness – something the majority of Hasidim are decidedly not, as a consequence of their insularity.<ref>https://forward.com/opinion/181566/blurring-out-satmar-history/</ref>
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In October 2025 the [[Central Rabbinical Congress]] called a “Cry of the Exile” rally at the Israeli consulate in New York against IDF draft enforcement; both Satmar rebbes urged attendance, a rare wartime protest against the state rather than silence.<ref name="TOICRC">Times of Israel, [https://www.timesofisrael.com/topic/central-rabbinical-congress/ Central Rabbinical Congress] coverage of October 2025 rally.</ref>
  
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:Skver has thrown its support behind Democrat Kathy Hochul for governor, joining Satmar’s Aronim faction in backing the incumbent who has signaled that she will not do anything to oppose the New York Board of Regents’ attacks against yeshivas. Skver and Satmar are now the only two voting blocs within the broader Orthodox Jewish community in New York who have spurned their brethren in endorsing Republican Lee Zeldin and his pledge to support Orthodox Jews and yeshivas and protect their way of life.
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== Satmar and Neturei Karta ==
  
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:Skver also endorsed Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democrat who is locked in a tight race with Assemblyman Mike Lawler. Despite the endorsements of Hochul and Maloney, many Satmar Aronim and Skverers are expected to vote for the Republicans, with their leadership’s endorsements having little effect on their vote in the crime-ridden and anti-yeshiva climate of New York.<ref>https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/general/2134796/outliers-skver-joins-satmar-in-endorsing-hochul-also-backs-maloney.html</ref>
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Some [[Neturei Karta]] members come from Satmar families. The court repeatedly draws a line: anti-Zionism is not alliance with Holocaust deniers or with those who praise attacks on Israeli civilians.
  
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==Voting bloc - June 2025==
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In 2006 Satmar issued a placard against seven Neturei Karta figures who attended Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust-denial conference in Tehran, ordering shunning for “walk[ing] hand in hand with the Arabs” and belittling the murdered.<ref name="Ynet2006">Ynet, [https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3340592,00.html Satmar slams Neturei Karta over Iran conference] ''Ynet News'', 2006.</ref>
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:Governor [[Andrew M. Cuomo]], candidate for [[Mayor of New York City]], today received the endorsement of the main Satmar community in Williamsburg, led politically by [[Rabbi Niederman]], together with a coalition of the main congregations in the area, including [[Pupa]], [[Viznitz]], [[Vien]], [[Tzelim]], [[Nitra]], [[Krasna]], [[Skver]] and [[Klausenburg]]. This group is known as the largest Orthodox voting bloc in the city. This marks the sixth Orthodox Jewish group to endorse Cuomo, joining the [[Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance]], the [[Bobov community in Borough Park]], [[Crown Jewish United and the Crown Heights PAC]], and [[Satmar Ahronim]], in backing Cuomo’s bid. Cuomo has also received the endorsement of the [[Sephardic Community Federation]].
 
  
−
:“I'm deeply honored to have the endorsement of the Satmars, a powerful nod that speaks to the deep bond and affection I’ve developed over the years with this community,” Governor Cuomo said. “I have great admiration for Rabbi Niederman, who is a true example of a real leader and who I’m proud to call a friend. Before coming to Brooklyn, he put his life on the line to save Jews in the Middle East. He’s helped to make the UJO from a three person team into a true New York powerhouse. In this election, antisemitism is on the ballot. When I become Mayor, I promise to continue my record of fighting antisemitism, and serving as that shield to protect our Jewish brothers and sisters.”<ref>https://www.andrewcuomo.com/press/cuomo-receives-major-endorsement-satmar-williamsburg-led-grand-rebbe-zalmen-teitelbaum-one</ref>
+
In November 2023 [[Zalman Teitelbaum]] attacked Neturei Karta demonstrations in New York “in support of Hamas”: walking “together with the Arabs… who shout… and support the murders” in shtreimel and bekishe was a “terrible desecration of the name of heaven.” Reports noted that Satmar still funds Haredi institutions that refuse Israeli budgets, yet unlike Neturei Karta it keeps ties with pro-Zionist Haredi communities for welfare and politics.<ref name="JP2023">Jewish Press, [https://www.jewishpress.com/news/jewish-news/haredim-news/satmar-rebbe-condemns-neturei-karta-for-supporting-hamas-murders/2023/11/13/ Satmar Rebbe condemns Neturei Karta for supporting Hamas murders] ''The Jewish Press'', 13 November 2023.</ref>
  
−
==Satmar in the UK==
+
== Relations with other Orthodox and Hasidic groups ==
  
−
===Canvey Island===
+
* '''[[Agudat Yisrael]] / [[United Torah Judaism]]''' — theological opponents (state funding, Knesset, Council of Torah Sages). Satmar still inhabits the same Haredi street and sometimes coordinates American pressure against the draft with UTJ’s Israeli agenda.
−
:As in other countries with sizable Jewish populations, the Haredi community is the fastest-growing Jewish group, estimated currently at around 60,000, or 20 percent of British Jews. But over the past decades, while they increased in number, they shrank in geography, concentrating in a handful of neighborhoods in north London and Manchester, with one northern outpost around the yeshiva in Gateshead founded in 1929. This is the first major migration of Haredi Jews to a brand-new location within Britain in nearly a century, when the children of migrants from Eastern Europe began moving from the overcrowded East End of London to the more comfortable suburbs to the north, making way for new waves of immigration to Britain.
+
* '''Religious Zionism / [[Abraham Isaac Kook]] heirs''' — the foil of ''Al Ha-Geulah''; settlement in “the territories” is blamed for war, not blessed as atchalta de-geulah.
 +
* '''[[Chabad-Lubavitch]]''' — shunned by Satmar-type Hasidim as modernised and media-savvy; not treated as a peer court.<ref name="ForwardBlur">Forward, [https://forward.com/opinion/181566/blurring-out-satmar-history/ Blurring out Satmar history] ''The Forward''.</ref>
 +
* '''[[Skver]]''' — fellow Hungarian-style stringency (New Square). The two have aligned as New York voting outliers, e.g. endorsing Kathy Hochul against a wider Orthodox tilt to Lee Zeldin.<ref name="YWNHochul">The Yeshiva World, [https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/general/2134796/outliers-skver-joins-satmar-in-endorsing-hochul-also-backs-maloney.html Outliers: Skver joins Satmar in endorsing Hochul] ''The Yeshiva World''.</ref>
 +
* '''[[Belz]], [[Vizhnitz]], Pupa, Vien, Klausenburg, Nitra, Krasna''' — Williamsburg coalition partners under [[United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg]] / [[Moshe Dovid Niederman]]; not theological clones.
 +
* '''[[Edah HaChareidis]] partners''' ([[Toldos Aharon]], Dushinsky, etc.) — Jerusalem anti-Zionist umbrella once headed by Satmar rebbes.
  
−
:And unlike in the United States, where ultra-Orthodox communities have been moving out of New York City to places such as Lakewood, Monsey, Kiryas Joel, and New Square since the 1940s, the Canvey Island community wasn’t created at the behest of a charismatic rabbi. It was the initiative of a few men in their late twenties and thirties. “We were a group of about seven or eight people, in early 2015, who stayed behind at shul one evening after Ma’ariv and talked about house prices and what we can do,” says [[Joel Friedman]], one of the founding members of the community and the first to purchase his family’s new home in Canvey Island, in February 2016.
+
== Voting bloc ==
  
−
:Friedman, 37, is a father of seven, a Satmar Hasid, and for want of a better definition, can be best described as a macher — a grassroots activist. He commutes daily back to Stamford Hill in London, where he works as director of public affairs at [[Interlink]] and the [[Pinter Trust]], organizations that work to provide public services within the British Haredi community and connect it with local authorities, the media, and the British government. His group spent nearly a year trying to find a location for their new community.They scoured the area around London, looking for a place that fit their requirements. It would need to be about an hour away, so as to be “not too far, but also not too close, so it could become self-sustainable and not rely on Stamford Hill for everything,” says Friedman. It would need to have a low crime rate, space for building communal institutions, and above all, a ready supply of homes at reasonable prices.<ref name="Canvey">https://k-larevue.com/en/postcard-from-canvey-island/</ref>
+
Williamsburg Satmar under [[Moshe Dovid Niederman]] and the UJO is routinely described as the city’s largest Orthodox voting bloc. In June 2025 the main Williamsburg court (Zalman) plus Pupa, Viznitz, Vien, Tzelim, Nitra, Krasna, Skver and Klausenburg endorsed [[Andrew Cuomo]] for mayor, after Satmar Ahronim and [[Bobov]] had already done so. Cuomo called Niederman a friend who had “put his life on the line to save Jews in the Middle East” and built UJO from a three-person team.<ref name="Cuomo2025">Andrew Cuomo campaign, [https://www.andrewcuomo.com/press/cuomo-receives-major-endorsement-satmar-williamsburg-led-grand-rebbe-zalmen-teitelbaum-one Cuomo receives major endorsement from Satmar Williamsburg] June 2025.</ref> Endorsements track yeshiva regulation, welfare and street safety more than Israel policy.
  
−
:Canvey Island is a Haredi community that exists without a rabbinical leader, though some of its members have semicha (rabbinical ordination) and they employ a dayan who rules on more technical issues of halacha. The Satmar Hasidim are the predominant Haredi sect in Canvey, affiliated with Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, who rules his international flock from Kiryas Joel in Orange County, New York (Satmar has been split for 16 years between two brothers, Aaron and Zalman). But Canvey is a general Hasidic community, not an exclusively Satmar one, and the rebbe is a distant figure. In March, Reb Aaron visited Britain but didn’t come to see his followers in Canvey. “We’re much too small and poor for him to visit,” wryly observes one Satmar Hasid, who insists they weren’t disappointed at being left off the rebbe’s itinerary.<ref name="Canvey"/>
+
== Institutions ==
  
−
==Institutions==
+
* Schools: Beis Rochel / Beis Ruchel (girls); Torah VeYirah; [[United Talmudical Seminary]]; [[Yeshivas Maharit D'Satmar]].
 +
* Aid: [[Bikur Cholim]]; Rav Tuv (Soviet, later Iranian and Yemenite Jews); [[Keren Hatzolah]] (yeshivas and poor in Israel who refuse state benefits).
 +
* Kashrut and courts: [[Central Rabbinical Congress]]; internal batei din.
 +
* Press: ''[[Der Yid]]'' (Zalman); ''[[Der Blatt]]'' (Aaron).
 +
* UK schools: [[Beis Rochel d'Satmar Girls' School]] and [[Beis Rochel D'Satmar School]] (Hackney); [[Beis Rochel Mcr Girls' School]], [[Beis Ruchel Girls School]] (Salford); [[Beis Ruchel D`Satmar]] (Hackney).
 +
* See also [[Satmar non profits in the US]].
  
−
The sect operates numerous community foundations. [[Bikur Cholim]] ("Visiting the sick"), established in 1957 by Teitelbaum's wife [[Alte Feiga]], concerns itself with helping hospitalized Jews, regardless of affiliation. ''Rav Tuv'', founded in the 1950s to help Jews in the Soviet Union, aids Jewish refugees. Today, the organization mostly helps [[Persian Jews|Jews from Iran]] and [[Yemenite Jews|Yemen]]. [[Keren Hatzolah]] is a charitable fund to support [[yeshiva]]s and the poor in Israel, providing for those who shun government benefits.
+
== Notable people ==
  
−
Teitelbaum founded a network of large educational institutions, both [[Mesivta|yeshivas]] and girls' schools. If its schools in New York were a public school system, it would be the fourth-largest system in the state, after those of New York City, Buffalo, and Rochester.<ref name=nyt>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/25/nyregion/25teitelbaum.html|title=''New York Times'', April 25, 2006|website=[[The New York Times]] }}</ref> In most places, the girls' schools are called ''Beis Rochel'', and the yeshivas ''Torah VeYirah''. In 1953, Teitelbaum founded the [[Central Rabbinical Congress of the United States and Canada]], which provides various services, including ''[[kashrut]]'' supervision.
+
* [[Joel Teitelbaum]] (1887–1979), founder
 +
* [[Moshe Teitelbaum (Satmar)|Moshe Teitelbaum]] (1914–2006)
 +
* [[Aaron Teitelbaum]] (born 1947), Kiryas Joel
 +
* [[Zalman Teitelbaum]] (born 1951), Williamsburg
 +
* [[Alte Feiga Teitelbaum]], Bikur Cholim
 +
* [[Moshe Dovid Niederman]], UJO Williamsburg
 +
* [[Chaim Yehoshua Halberstam]], Satmar rabbi in Monsey
 +
* [[Louis Kestenbaum]], property
 +
* [[Yossi Green]], composer
 +
* [[Meilech Kohn]], [[Shmueli Ungar]], singers
  
−
[[Yeshiva gedolah|Senior yeshivas]] include the [[United Talmudical Seminary]] and [[Yeshivas Maharit D'Satmar]]. <ref>[https://yeshivasmaharit.org/ yeshivasmaharit.org]</ref>
+
== See also ==
−
Satmar also operates its own [[Beth din|rabbinical courts]], which settle various issues within the community by the principles of Jewish Law.
 
  
−
The sect has a Yiddish newspaper called ''[[Der Yid]]'', now privatized, and various other Yiddish publications. It is currently identified with Zalman's  Hasidim; whereas ''[[Der Blatt]]'', established in 2000, is owned and run by a follower of Aaron's.
+
* [[Siget (Hasidic dynasty)]]
−
 
+
* [[Munkacs (Hasidic dynasty)]]
−
===UK===
+
* [[Neturei Karta]]
−
====Schools in the UK====
+
* [[Edah HaChareidis]]
−
[[Beis Rochel d'Satmar Girls' School]] Hackney | [[Beis Rochel D'Satmar School]] Hackney | [[Beis Rochel Mcr Girls' School]] Salford | [[Beis Ruchel D`Satmar]] Hackney | [[Beis Ruchel Girls School (secondary)]] Salford | [[Beis Ruchel Girls School]]
+
* [[Central Rabbinical Congress]]
−
 
+
* [[Hasidic dynasties]]
−
===US===
+
* [[Kiryas Joel]]
−
*[[Satmar non profits in the US]]
+
* [[Agudat Yisrael]]
  
−
== Notable Satmar people ==
+
== External links ==
  
−
* [[Aaron Teitelbaum]] (born 1947), rebbe of Satmar in Kiryas Yoel, New York
+
* [https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/satmar-anti-zionist Shaul Magid on Satmar anti-Zionism]
−
* [[Chaim Yehoshua Halberstam]], Satmar rabbi in Monsey, New York
+
* [https://mishpacha.com/the-kingmaker-from-williamsburg/ Mishpacha: The kingmaker from Williamsburg]
−
* [[Joel Teitelbaum]] (1887–1979), founding rebbe of Satmar
+
* [https://yeshivasmaharit.org/ Yeshivas Maharit D'Satmar]
−
* [[Louis Kestenbaum]] (born 1952), American real estate developer<ref>Kusisto, Laura (June 16, 2014) [https://www.wsj.com/articles/familiar-face-emerges-in-lich-saga-1402972744 "Familiar Face Emerges in LICH Saga"], ''The Wall Street Journal''. Retrieved April 19, 2020.</ref>
+
* [https://k-larevue.com/en/postcard-from-canvey-island/ Canvey Island]
−
* [[Meilech Kohn]] (born 1969), American singer<ref>Liel Leibovitz [http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/247510/straight-outta-satmar-hear-the-biggest-hasidic-hit-of-right-now Straight Outta Satmar: Hear the Biggest Hasidic Hit of Right Now] October 20, 2017 [[Tablet (magazine)|Tablet]]</ref>
 
−
* [[Moshe Teitelbaum (Satmar)|Moshe Teitelbaum]] (1914–2006), rebbe
 
−
* [[Shmueli Ungar]], singer
 
−
* [[Yossi Green]] (born 1955), American composer<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/115718/musician-yossi-green-weathers-the-storm-in-seagate|title=Yossi Green Weathers Storm in Seagate|first=Joseph|last=Winkler|date=November 5, 2012|access-date=November 30, 2013|work=Tablet |quote=Yossi Green — the Satmar-raised musician and composer profiled in today's Tablet — lives in the Seagate neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, along with many other prominent Jews.}}</ref>
 
−
* [[Zalman Teitelbaum]] (born 1951), rebbe of Satmar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
 
  
−
== Further reading==
+
== Further reading ==
−
* [[Deborah Feldman|Feldman, Deborah]] (2012). ''Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots''. New York: Simon & Schuster. {{ISBN|978-1-4391-8701-2}}.
 
−
** Roberts, Sam, [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/nyregion/books-on-a-racial-attraction-a-religious-rejection-and-new-york-architecture.html "Embracing a Race and Rejecting a Sect"]. Bookshelf. ''[[The New York Times]]'', February 12, 2012.
 
−
** ''[[The New York Times]]'' [https://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2012-10-21/paperback-nonfiction/list.html Bestseller: Non-fiction, October 21, 2012].
 
−
* Weisshaus, Yechezkel Yossef (2008). ''The Rebbe: A Glimpse into the Daily Life of the Satmar Rebbe Rabbeinu Yoel Teitelbaum''. Translated by Mechon Lev Avos from ''Sefer Eidis B'Yosef'' by Rabbi Yechezkel Yosef Weisshaus. Machon Lev Avos. Lakewood, New Jersey: Distributed by Israel Book Shop. {{ISBN|978-1-60091-063-0}}.
 
  
−
==External links==
+
* Deborah Feldman, ''Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots'', New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012.
−
*https://archive.ph/SfUIZ
+
* Yechezkel Yossef Weisshaus, ''The Rebbe'', Machon Lev Avos / Israel Book Shop, 2008.
−
*https://mishpacha.com/the-kingmaker-from-williamsburg/
 
−
* [http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=29556 (March 22, 2006). "Satmar Dispute Over Many Millions To Be Decided by a Secular Court"], ''New York Sun''. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
 
−
* [http://forward.com/articles/7746 One Rebbe or Two? (05/05/06)], ''[[The Forward]]''.
 
−
* [https://newyorkerlife.com/new-york-city-street-photography-satmar-hasidic-jews-of-williamsburg/ Satmar Hasidic Williamsburg], newyorkerlife.com. Accessed December 18, 2022.
 
−
* [http://newyorkmetro.com/news/cityside/16864/index.html Hats On, Gloves Off (05/08/06)] from ''[[New York Magazine]]''. Accessed December 18, 2022.
 
−
*https://www.shtetl.org/article/satmar-grand-rabbi-deceiving-state-lawmakers-on-education-bill
 
−
*https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/21/nyregion/2-hasidic-groups-in-brooklyn-involved-in-complex-conflict.html
 
−
*https://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/03/nyregion/guard-set-for-belz-rabbi-as-hasidic-tension-grows.html
 
−
* https://forward.com/news/445164/satmar-hasidic-orthodox-jewish/?amp=1
 
−
*https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/jewish-world/2022/05/the-specter-of-satmar/
 
−
*https://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/03/nyregion/guard-set-for-belz-rabbi-as-hasidic-tension-grows.html
 
−
*https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/how-500-haredi-jews-moved-4418425
 
−
*https://hal.science/hal-03114694/document
 
−
*https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336071973_Canvey_Island_The_Effects_of_Group_Action_of_Satmar_Community
 
−
*https://www.essex.police.uk/news/essex/news/news/2022/january/haredi-engagement-work-Risden/
 
−
*https://k-larevue.com/en/postcard-from-canvey-island/
 
−
*https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/jewish-world/2022/05/the-specter-of-satmar/
 
−
*https://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/03/nyregion/guard-set-for-belz-rabbi-as-hasidic-tension-grows.html
 
−
*https://assets.cambridge.org/97811070/88108/excerpt/9781107088108_excerpt.pdf
 
−
*https://www.scribd.com/document/92789516/Jewish-Nationalism-Satmar-Hasidim-Neturei-Karta-And-Hadash
 
−
*https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/398215
 
−
*https://www.shtetl.org/article/concerned-about-haredim-siding-with-israel-satmar-rabbis-issue-media-guidelines-for-war-coverage
 
−
*https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/244926/satmar-rebbe-of-kiryas-yoel-its-their-fault-for-living-in-the-territories.html
 
  
−
==See also==
+
== Notes ==
  
−
*[[Siget (Hasidic dynasty)]]
+
<references />
−
*[[Munkacs (Hasidic dynasty)]]
 
−
*[[Hasidic dynasties]]
 
−
* [[Neturei Karta]]
 
  
−
==Notes==
+
[[Category:Israel]]
−
<references/>
+
[[Category:Anti-Zionism]]
 +
[[Category:Anti-Zionist activists]]
 +
[[Category:Zionist movement]]
 +
[[Category:Zionism in the United Kingdom]]

Revision as of 13:27, 14 September 2026

Largest Hasidic court; Hungarian-origin anti-Zionist dynasty split between Aaron Teitelbaum (Kiryas Joel) and Zalman Teitelbaum (Williamsburg)


-
Satmar
Founded 1905 (Satu Mare); rebuilt in New York after 1946 Satu Mare (Satmar), then Kingdom of Hungary
Founder Joel Teitelbaum (1887–1979)
Leader Rebbe (Kiryas Joel / Ahronim) Aaron Teitelbaum (born 1947)
Headquarters Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Kiryas Joel, New York
Type Hasidic court (Haredi Judaism)

Satmar (Yiddish: סאטמאר) is a Hasidic court originating in Satu Mare (Satmar) in historic Hungary, rebuilt in New York after the Holocaust by Joel Teitelbaum (1887–1979). It is the largest Hasidic group in the world. Marcin Wodziński’s mid-2010s count from internal telephone books put Satmar at about 26,000 households — some 20 per cent of all Hasidim — split after 2006 between two sons of Moshe Teitelbaum (1914–2006): Aaron Teitelbaum in Kiryas Joel and Zalman Teitelbaum in Williamsburg.[1]

Satmar is the principal organised bearer of Hungarian Haredi anti-Zionism in the United States. It rejects Agudat Yisrael participation in Israeli coalitions, funds institutions that refuse state money through vehicles such as Keren Hatzolah, and heads the Central Rabbinical Congress in North America while remaining tied to the Edah HaChareidis in Jerusalem. It simultaneously condemns Neturei Karta when the latter joins Iranian or Palestinian platforms, and it operates as a New York voting machine that endorses secular Democrats and Republicans. That mix — theological rejection of the state, material support for Haredim who live in it, and American political brokerage — is the court’s public profile.[2][3]

History

Joel Teitelbaum, from the Sighet / Sighet Teitelbaum line, became rabbi of Satu Mare and built a court marked by Hungarian Haredi stringency and hostility to Zionism and to Agudat Yisrael’s political bargains. He survived Bergen-Belsen on the Kastner train, reached Palestine, then settled in Williamsburg in 1946 and reconstituted the court among Hungarian survivors.[1]

He founded Der Yid, the girls’ schools called Beis Rochel and the boys’ yeshivas Torah VeYirah, the United Talmudical Seminary, Bikur Cholim (1957, organised by Alte Feiga Teitelbaum), refugee aid under Rav Tuv, and in 1953 the Central Rabbinical Congress of the United States and Canada. He served as chief rabbi of the Edah HaChareidis from 1953 until his death while living in New York. In 1959 he published Vayoel Moshe; after the 1967 war he published Al Ha-Geulah ve-Al Ha-Temurah against treating the conquest of Jerusalem and the West Bank as messianic miracle.[1]

He founded Kiryas Joel in the Town of Monroe, Orange County, in the mid-1970s as an insular Yiddish enclave. The village later became coterminous with the Town of Palm Tree. Census figures show explosive growth: about 13,000 in 2000, 33,000 in 2020, around 39,000 on ACS 2024 five-year estimates, with other official estimates near 44,000 after 2020–24 growth of about one third.[4][5]

Moshe Teitelbaum succeeded in 1979. After his death in 2006 the court split: Aaron kept Kiryas Joel and a Williamsburg hall at Kent and Hooper; Zalman kept the historic Rodney Street Yetev Lev and Williamsburg institutions. Der Yid is identified with Zalman; Der Blatt (from 2000) with Aaron. The brothers were publicly estranged for about two decades, speaking in 2020, and appeared together at a White House meeting with Donald Trump in September 2026 over welfare, prison conditions and the Israeli draft.[6]

Geography

United States

  • South Williamsburg, Brooklyn — historic centre; Satmar-majority among Pupa, Vien, Klausenburg, Vizhnitz, Nitra, Krasna. Zalman’s Yetev Lev on Rodney Street; Aaron’s larger hall at Kent and Hooper. Community estimates put the wider Hasidic population of South Williamsburg in the tens of thousands.[7]
  • Kiryas Joel / Town of Palm Tree, Orange County — Aaron’s seat; all-Satmar village; 8,000-family claims in faction literature; 24,000 pupils claimed across the two flagship school systems (12,000 each) in 2023 faction publications.[8]
  • Borough Park; Monsey; Bloomingburg / Woodbury / Chester satellites; Lakewood; Los Angeles.
  • Montreal.

If Satmar New York schools were a public system they would rank among the state’s largest after New York City, Buffalo and Rochester.[9]

United Kingdom

Stamford Hill remains the British centre (Beis Rochel / Beis Ruchel girls’ schools in Hackney and Salford). From 2016 a mixed Haredi colony on Canvey Island, Essex, was planted by young Satmar-affiliated householders around Joel Friedman of Interlink / the Pinter Trust, without a resident rebbe; the group is loosely tied to Aaron Teitelbaum. Satmar is the largest Hasidic presence there but the settlement is not an exclusive Satmar court town.[10] Manchester / Salford holds Beis Rochel / Beis Ruchel schools.

Israel and occupied territory

Satmar maintains communities in Jerusalem (including Shikun Satmar between Ezrat Torah and Tel Arza) and Bnei Brak, with smaller groups in Elad and Beit Shemesh. Factional geography in Israel is often described as Zalman-leaning in Jerusalem and Aaron-leaning in Bnei Brak, each on the order of hundreds of families rather than tens of thousands.

Joel Teitelbaum headed the Edah HaChareidis, the anti-Zionist communal and kashrut body in Jerusalem that also includes Dushinsky, Toldos Aharon, Toldos Avraham Yitzchak, Spinka and some Breslov and Perushim circles. Keren Hatzolah raises diaspora money for yeshivas and poor families in the land of Israel who refuse Israeli state budgets. That is material presence inside the Green Line and in Haredi neighbourhoods of municipal Jerusalem, including occupied East Jerusalem frameworks, without Satmar recognition of the state’s legitimacy.

Satmar does not build named settler towns comparable to Beitar Illit (Haredi-Zionist / Agudah housing). Aaron Teitelbaum has blamed Jews “living in the territories” for violence that follows, a line consistent with opposing Religious-Zionist settlement while still funding anti-draft, anti-state Haredi life in the same land.[11]

Elsewhere

Antwerp; São Paulo; Melbourne; Argentina.

Orientation to Zionism

Satmar anti-Zionism is not quiet non-recognition. Vayoel Moshe and Al Ha-Geulah treat the state as heresy that delays redemption: a golden-calf / false-messiah test. Shaul Magid stresses that Joel Teitelbaum almost never names Zionist thinkers; he writes in beit-midrash idiom against minim and apikorsim for an ultra-Orthodox audience tempted after the Holocaust and 1967. Magid argues that Abraham Isaac Kook and Teitelbaum both read Zionism messianically: Kook as a necessary secular husk to be transvalued; Teitelbaum as the satanic prelude that must be refused or redemption will come only through catastrophe. Teitelbaum’s lineage runs through Hayyim Elazar Shapira of Munkacz, the Old Yishuv, early Neturei Karta, Elhanan Wasserman and interwar Lubavitch anti-Zionism — but only he built a full political theology and rejected Agudat Yisrael’s pragmatic seating in Zionist institutions as service of the calf.[1]

Menachem Keren-Kratz notes that for the first post-Holocaust years Teitelbaum was almost alone among prominent rabbis in holding the pre-war Transylvanian hard line; he preached in Der Yid before putting the system in book form in 1959 when he judged Haredi opinion to be softening.[1]

Aaron Teitelbaum, addressing Nassau Coliseum, later rebuked Hasidim for admiring Israeli military and political “accomplishments”: “We have no part in Zionism. We have no part in their wars. We have no part in the State of Israel.” He rejected any compromise on drafting yeshiva students.[3] The Jewish Chronicle has insisted that Satmar theology also forbids backing PLO, Islamist or far-left campaigns against Jews: Joel Teitelbaum called such organisations antisemitic murderers.[2]

In October 2025 the Central Rabbinical Congress called a “Cry of the Exile” rally at the Israeli consulate in New York against IDF draft enforcement; both Satmar rebbes urged attendance, a rare wartime protest against the state rather than silence.[12]

Satmar and Neturei Karta

Some Neturei Karta members come from Satmar families. The court repeatedly draws a line: anti-Zionism is not alliance with Holocaust deniers or with those who praise attacks on Israeli civilians.

In 2006 Satmar issued a placard against seven Neturei Karta figures who attended Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust-denial conference in Tehran, ordering shunning for “walk[ing] hand in hand with the Arabs” and belittling the murdered.[13]

In November 2023 Zalman Teitelbaum attacked Neturei Karta demonstrations in New York “in support of Hamas”: walking “together with the Arabs… who shout… and support the murders” in shtreimel and bekishe was a “terrible desecration of the name of heaven.” Reports noted that Satmar still funds Haredi institutions that refuse Israeli budgets, yet unlike Neturei Karta it keeps ties with pro-Zionist Haredi communities for welfare and politics.[14]

Relations with other Orthodox and Hasidic groups

  • Agudat Yisrael / United Torah Judaism — theological opponents (state funding, Knesset, Council of Torah Sages). Satmar still inhabits the same Haredi street and sometimes coordinates American pressure against the draft with UTJ’s Israeli agenda.
  • Religious Zionism / Abraham Isaac Kook heirs — the foil of Al Ha-Geulah; settlement in “the territories” is blamed for war, not blessed as atchalta de-geulah.
  • Chabad-Lubavitch — shunned by Satmar-type Hasidim as modernised and media-savvy; not treated as a peer court.[15]
  • Skver — fellow Hungarian-style stringency (New Square). The two have aligned as New York voting outliers, e.g. endorsing Kathy Hochul against a wider Orthodox tilt to Lee Zeldin.[16]
  • Belz, Vizhnitz, Pupa, Vien, Klausenburg, Nitra, Krasna — Williamsburg coalition partners under United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg / Moshe Dovid Niederman; not theological clones.
  • Edah HaChareidis partners (Toldos Aharon, Dushinsky, etc.) — Jerusalem anti-Zionist umbrella once headed by Satmar rebbes.

Voting bloc

Williamsburg Satmar under Moshe Dovid Niederman and the UJO is routinely described as the city’s largest Orthodox voting bloc. In June 2025 the main Williamsburg court (Zalman) plus Pupa, Viznitz, Vien, Tzelim, Nitra, Krasna, Skver and Klausenburg endorsed Andrew Cuomo for mayor, after Satmar Ahronim and Bobov had already done so. Cuomo called Niederman a friend who had “put his life on the line to save Jews in the Middle East” and built UJO from a three-person team.[17] Endorsements track yeshiva regulation, welfare and street safety more than Israel policy.

Institutions

Notable people

See also

External links

Further reading

  • Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012.
  • Yechezkel Yossef Weisshaus, The Rebbe, Machon Lev Avos / Israel Book Shop, 2008.

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Shaul Magid, The Satmar Are Anti-Zionist. Should We Care? Tablet, 21 May 2020.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Jewish Chronicle, Time to stop the Shraga Stern farce The Jewish Chronicle.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Times of Israel, Head of Satmar Hasidic sect castigates followers for admiring Israel, IDF Times of Israel.
  4. ↑ Glenn C. Altschuler, Satmar’s micro-society: Kiryas Joel is a mirror of the American people Jerusalem Post, 27 January 2022.
  5. ↑ Census Reporter, Kiryas Joel, NY ACS 2024 5-year, accessed September 2026.
  6. ↑ The Yeshiva World, Historic White House visit The Yeshiva World, 4 September 2026.
  7. ↑ Shul Map, Williamsburg Shuls accessed September 2026.
  8. ↑ Shtetl, Satmar community touts 24,000 students Shtetl, 12 December 2023.
  9. ↑ New York Times, report on Teitelbaum succession The New York Times, 25 April 2006.
  10. ↑ K. Revue, Postcard from Canvey Island accessed September 2026.
  11. ↑ The Yeshiva World, Satmar Rebbe of Kiryas Yoel: it's their fault for living in the territories The Yeshiva World.
  12. ↑ Times of Israel, Central Rabbinical Congress coverage of October 2025 rally.
  13. ↑ Ynet, Satmar slams Neturei Karta over Iran conference Ynet News, 2006.
  14. ↑ Jewish Press, Satmar Rebbe condemns Neturei Karta for supporting Hamas murders The Jewish Press, 13 November 2023.
  15. ↑ Forward, Blurring out Satmar history The Forward.
  16. ↑ The Yeshiva World, Outliers: Skver joins Satmar in endorsing Hochul The Yeshiva World.
  17. ↑ Andrew Cuomo campaign, Cuomo receives major endorsement from Satmar Williamsburg June 2025.
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