Difference between revisions of "Satmar (Hasidic dynasty)"

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=== Israel and occupied territory ===
 
=== Israel and occupied territory ===
  
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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.
+
== Israel, the Green Line and occupied territory ==
  
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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.
+
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.
  
−
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>
+
[[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. Satmar does not recognise the state. It still funds and houses people who live under it.
 +
 
 +
=== Inside the Green Line (Israel in the 1949 armistice sense) ===
 +
 
 +
Named Satmar housing and schools sit on the Israeli side of the 1949 line:
 +
 
 +
* '''[[Shikun Satmar]]''' — north-west Jerusalem housing belt between [[Ezrat Torah]] and [[Tel Arza]], in the same Romema / Yirmiyahu Street Haredi strip as Geula and [[Mea Shearim]]. This is west / municipal Jerusalem as Israel defined it before 1967, not a named East Jerusalem settlement.
 +
* '''[[Mea Shearim]] / Geula''' — historic Old Yishuv and Edah street grid; Satmar and Edah batei din, kashrut offices and draft protests concentrate here.
 +
* '''[[Bnei Brak]]''' — Aaron-leaning Satmar families and yeshivas; Israel proper.
 +
* '''[[Elad]]''' and '''[[Beit Shemesh]]''' (including Ramat Beit Shemesh) — satellite Haredi towns inside the Green Line; small Satmar presence among a mixed Haredi population.
 +
 
 +
[[Keren Hatzolah]]’s published purpose is support for yeshivas and poor households that refuse Israeli government stipends. In practice that money follows Edah / Satmar institutions in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak. Charity filings in the US and UK name “Israel”; they do not publish a line-by-line split of grants inside the Green Line versus East Jerusalem or the West Bank.
 +
 
 +
=== Over the Green Line: what Satmar does and does not do ===
 +
 
 +
Satmar does '''not''' found or brand settler towns comparable to [[Beitar Illit]] or [[Modiin Illit]] ([[Kiryat Sefer]]), the giant Haredi cities built after 1967 on occupied West Bank land and now among the largest settlements. Those cities are Agudah / Lithuanian / mixed-Hasidic housing markets, not Satmar courts. [[Aaron Teitelbaum]] has blamed Jews “living in the territories” for the violence that follows, a line consistent with opposing Religious-Zionist (and, by extension, mass Haredi) settlement while still funding anti-draft Haredi life in the land of Israel.<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>
 +
 
 +
Activity that '''does''' cross the Green Line is institutional and ritual, not a Satmar municipal project:
 +
 
 +
{| class="wikitable"
 +
|+ Occupied territory and East Jerusalem
 +
! Place !! Status !! Satmar / Edah activity
 +
|-
 +
| Western Wall / Old City holy sites || Occupied East Jerusalem (taken 1967) || After the 1967 war Teitelbaum forbade prayer at the Wall and other captured sites in ''Al Ha-Geulah ve-Al Ha-Temurah'', arguing that worship there would confer legitimacy on the state. That ban is a Satmar rule '''about''' occupied ground; it is the opposite of Religious-Zionist pilgrimage.
 +
|-
 +
| Municipal East Jerusalem (shops, hotels, shemita produce, arba minim) || Occupied East Jerusalem under Israeli municipal annexation || [[Edah HaChareidis]] [[Badatz]] kashrut supervision runs city-wide. Hotels and food businesses in central and East Jerusalem carry Edah hechsherim. That is commercial-religious jurisdiction across the Green Line, not a Satmar housing estate.
 +
|-
 +
| [[Ramat Shlomo]], [[Neve Yaakov]], [[Ramot]] (east sections), [[Givat Ze'ev]] || East Jerusalem / West Bank settlement belt || Haredi neighbourhoods over the line. Edah-type households live there; Satmar does not advertise a named kehillah as it does Shikun Satmar.
 +
|-
 +
| [[Beitar Illit]], [[Modiin Illit]] / Kiryat Sefer || West Bank settlements || Largest Haredi settler cities. Edah umbrella literature lists members in Kiryat Sefer and Beitar Illit. Those are other courts’ and Litvish families’ housing. Satmar leadership publicly treats “the territories” as a Religious-Zionist error, not a Satmar mitzvah.
 +
|-
 +
| Draft resistance / CRC–Edah protests || Students live on both sides of the line || Anti-conscription campaign (including the 2025 “Cry of the Exile” in New York) covers yeshiva boys wherever they are registered in “Eretz Yisrael,” including settlement yeshivas. The demand is exemption from the [[IDF]], not a Satmar flag over Beitar.
 +
|}
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=== How to read the map ===
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 +
Satmar’s '''named''' geography in the country is west Jerusalem plus Bnei Brak, Elad and Beit Shemesh — Green Line Israel — plus an Edah presidency that historically claimed the Old Yishuv of Jerusalem as a whole. Its '''doctrine''' treats 1967 conquest as illegitimate, forbids using the Kotel as a Zionist shrine, and funds those who will not take state money. Its '''money''' (Keren Hatzolah, Yeitev Lev Eretz Israel Ltd and related UK/US vehicles) is declared for “Israel” without a public Green Line / OPT ledger. Its '''people''' overlap the Edah world, some of whom live in East Jerusalem neighbourhoods and in Beitar / Modiin Illit. That overlap is not the same as Satmar building settlements.
  
 
=== Elsewhere ===
 
=== Elsewhere ===
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Both reject drafting yeshiva students into the [[IDF]]. Both operate large New York welfare and school systems and both appear in American electoral brokerage. They do not share pulpits, kashrut, schools or marriage markets. Satmar’s denunciations of [[Neturei Karta]] for marching with Israel’s enemies do not create an opening to Chabad; the forbidden act, in Satmar terms, is granting the state religious standing, which Chabad does as a matter of policy.
 
Both reject drafting yeshiva students into the [[IDF]]. Both operate large New York welfare and school systems and both appear in American electoral brokerage. They do not share pulpits, kashrut, schools or marriage markets. Satmar’s denunciations of [[Neturei Karta]] for marching with Israel’s enemies do not create an opening to Chabad; the forbidden act, in Satmar terms, is granting the state religious standing, which Chabad does as a matter of policy.
  
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== Relations with [[Skver]] and the Williamsburg courts ==
+
 
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== Voting bloc, [[Skver]] and the Williamsburg courts ==
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Williamsburg Satmar under [[Moshe Dovid Niederman]] and the [[United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn]] ([[UJO]]) is routinely described as New York City’s largest Orthodox voting bloc. Endorsements track yeshiva regulation, welfare and street safety more than Israel policy.
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In June 2025 the main Williamsburg court ([[Zalman Teitelbaum]]) plus [[Pupa]], [[Vizhnitz]], [[Vien]], Tzelim, [[Nitra]], [[Krasna]], [[Skver]] and [[Klausenburg]] endorsed [[Andrew Cuomo]] for mayor, after Satmar Ahronim ([[Aaron Teitelbaum]]) 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>
  
 
=== [[Skver]] ===
 
=== [[Skver]] ===
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In September 2026 both Satmar rebbes and a son of the Skverer Rebbe sat in the same White House meeting with [[Donald Trump]], alongside [[Bobov]] and Monsey [[Vizhnitz]] — cooperation on prisons, housing and the Israeli draft, not a merger of courts.<ref name="JITrump26">Matthew Kassel, [https://jewishinsider.com/2026/09/trump-white-house-meeting-hasidic-rabbis-housing-taxes-prison-reform/ Trump and Hasidic rabbis discuss housing, prison reform and family tax credits] ''Jewish Insider'', 3 September 2026.</ref>
 
In September 2026 both Satmar rebbes and a son of the Skverer Rebbe sat in the same White House meeting with [[Donald Trump]], alongside [[Bobov]] and Monsey [[Vizhnitz]] — cooperation on prisons, housing and the Israeli draft, not a merger of courts.<ref name="JITrump26">Matthew Kassel, [https://jewishinsider.com/2026/09/trump-white-house-meeting-hasidic-rabbis-housing-taxes-prison-reform/ Trump and Hasidic rabbis discuss housing, prison reform and family tax credits] ''Jewish Insider'', 3 September 2026.</ref>
  
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=== Williamsburg coalition: UJO, not one rebbe ===
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=== UJO: a civic machine, not one rebbe ===
  
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South Williamsburg is Satmar-majority but not Satmar-only. Smaller Hungarian and Galician courts keep their own shtieblach and schools while using a shared civic machine, the [[United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn]] ([[UJO]]), founded 1966. [[Moshe Dovid Niederman]] (also styled David Niederman) has been executive director since 1989. He previously ran [[Rav Tov]], the Satmar refugee organisation set up at [[Joel Teitelbaum]]’s instruction in 1973. UJO presents itself as a coalition of more than 200 groups serving on the order of 70,000 people; 2024 figures cite 93,131 walk-in clients. Services run in Yiddish and English: housing, Medicaid, food stamps, immigration, seniors, a kosher pantry opened 2026 at 365 Flushing Avenue with [[Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty]]. City capital funds of $5.5 million were secured in 2025 for a headquarters at 498 Bedford Avenue.<ref name="UJOExec">United Jewish Organizations, [https://www.unitedjewish.org/executive-director.html Executive Director].</ref><ref name="UJOHome">United Jewish Organizations, [https://www.unitedjewish.org/ home page], accessed 2026.</ref>
+
South Williamsburg is Satmar-majority but not Satmar-only. Smaller Hungarian and Galician courts keep their own shtieblach and schools while using a shared civic machine. UJO was founded in 1966. Niederman has been executive director since 1989. He previously ran [[Rav Tov]], the Satmar refugee organisation set up at [[Joel Teitelbaum]]’s instruction in 1973. UJO presents itself as a coalition of more than 200 groups serving on the order of 70,000 people; 2024 figures cite 93,131 walk-in clients. Services run in Yiddish and English: housing, Medicaid, food stamps, immigration, seniors, a kosher pantry opened 2026 at 365 Flushing Avenue with [[Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty]]. City capital funds of $5.5 million were secured in 2025 for a headquarters at 498 Bedford Avenue.<ref name="UJOExec">United Jewish Organizations, [https://www.unitedjewish.org/executive-director.html Executive Director].</ref><ref name="UJOHome">United Jewish Organizations, [https://www.unitedjewish.org/ home page], accessed 2026.</ref>
  
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The courts that sit in that machine, and that joined Williamsburg Satmar in the June 2025 [[Andrew Cuomo]] mayoral endorsement, are political partners, not theological copies:
+
The courts in that machine, and on the 2025 Cuomo list, are political partners, not theological copies:
  
 
* '''[[Pupa]]''' — Hungarian court; historic Williamsburg neighbour; co-founder circle of the [[Central Rabbinical Congress]] with Satmar.
 
* '''[[Pupa]]''' — Hungarian court; historic Williamsburg neighbour; co-founder circle of the [[Central Rabbinical Congress]] with Satmar.
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* '''[[Nitra]]''' — Hungarian yeshiva court; Williamsburg and Mount Kisco; CRC milieu.
 
* '''[[Nitra]]''' — Hungarian yeshiva court; Williamsburg and Mount Kisco; CRC milieu.
 
* '''[[Krasna]]''' — small Hungarian court in the same street grid.
 
* '''[[Krasna]]''' — small Hungarian court in the same street grid.
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* '''[[Belz]]''' — present in the 2025 endorsement list as a Williamsburg partner. This is neighbourhood politics. In 1979 Satmar students wrecked a Belz synagogue in Williamsburg in a fight over religious courts in Israel; the two courts have long disagreed about Agudah participation and Israeli institutions even when they share Bedford Avenue.
+
* '''[[Tzelim]]''' (Tzelem) — Williamsburg partner named on the Cuomo slate.
 +
* '''[[Belz]]''' — neighbourhood partner in some slates. This is street politics. In 1979 Satmar students wrecked a Belz synagogue in Williamsburg in a fight over religious courts in Israel; the courts have long disagreed about [[Agudat Yisrael]] and Israeli institutions even when they share Bedford Avenue.
 +
* '''[[Skver]]''' — New Square votes with Satmar when the issue is Albany and yeshivas; it is not a Williamsburg street court.
  
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Niederman is the translator of that patchwork into City Hall and Albany language: antisemitism, childcare, yeshiva regulation, public housing. Cuomo in 2025 called him a friend who built UJO from a three-person office and who had “put his life on the line to save Jews in the Middle East” (the Rav Tov years). The coalition can deliver a claimed high-turnout Williamsburg Orthodox vote on the order of 10,000. It does not require Pupa, Vien or Klausenburg to accept ''Vayoel Moshe'', nor Skver to accept Satmar succession claims. Alignment is over schools, welfare and street control.
+
Niederman is the translator of that patchwork into City Hall and Albany language. The coalition can deliver a claimed high-turnout Williamsburg Orthodox vote on the order of 10,000. It does not require Pupa, Vien or Klausenburg to accept ''Vayoel Moshe'', nor Skver to accept Satmar succession claims.
  
 
== Institutions ==
 
== Institutions ==

Latest revision as of 16:27, 14 September 2026

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


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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.

Institutions in the United Kingdom

Satmar institutions in Britain cluster in Stamford Hill / Hackney, Salford / Manchester, and the mixed Haredi colony on Canvey Island (from 2016). Girls’ schools are generally named Beis Rochel / Beis Ruchel; boys’ schools Talmud Torah Yetev Lev or Torah VeYirah. Congregations use Kehal Yetev Lev.

Schools

Independent schools identified with Satmar
Name Local authority Gender / ages Charity / proprietor Notes
Beis Rochel d'Satmar Girls' School Hackney Girls, 2–19 The Bais Rochel Dsatmar Charitable Trust (281371), 51–57 Amhurst Park, London N16 5DL Majority Satmar; also other Hasidic girls. Trustees include Solomon Berkowitz.[11]
Beis Rochel D'Satmar School Hackney Boys, 2–11 Talmud Torah Torah Veyirah D'Satmar London Limited (1136378) 180 Bethune Road, London N16 5DS; URN 147296; head Emmanuel Patcas.[12]
Talmud Torah Yetev Lev Hackney Boys, 7–11 Satmar community school 438 pupils; DfE restriction on new admissions lifted March 2025 after standards improved.[13]
Beis Ruchel D'Satmar / Beis Ruchel D'Satmar London Hackney Girls, 2–11 Beis Ruchel D'Satmar (London) Limited (1125988; co. 06660324) 117 Stamford Hill, N16 5RS; URN 137505; proprietor Abraham Klein; c. 1,108 pupils; income £3.72m (year to 30 August 2025). Objects include poverty relief “throughout the world.”[14]
Beis Rochel Mcr Girls' School Salford Girls Satmar-linked Ofsted monitoring criticised RSE / protected-characteristics teaching; Ofsted later amended LGBT wording.[15]
Beis Ruchel Girls School (primary and secondary) Salford / Manchester Girls Beis Ruchel School Ltd (co. 03561612; charity 1074439) Trustees include Paul Rothschild, also of Cong Yetev Lev D'Satmar M/C Ltd.

Congregations and halls

Synagogues and batei midrash
Name Address Notes
Beth Hamedrash Kehal Yetev Lev 86 Cazenove Road, London N16 6AB Core Satmar kehilla from c. 1962; Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.[16]
Beis Hamedrash Kehal Yetev Lev 42 Craven Walk, London N16 6BU From c. 2003.[16]
Beis Hamedrash D'Chasidei Satmar 57 Bethune Road, London N16 5EE From c. 2010.[16]
Beis Hamedrash Tehillois Yoel 148 Upper Clapton Road, London E5 9BA From c. 2011.[16]
Beth Hamedrash Kehal Yetev Lev (listed historic) 26 Clapton Common, London E5 From c. 1993; JCR-UK notes it may no longer sit in the organised structure.[16]
Beis Hamedrash V'Yoel Moshe (listed historic) 67 Heathland Road, London N16 6PQ From c. 2006.[16]
Beth Hamedrash Satmar Veyoel Moshe 37 Northumberland Road, Salford Maintained by KH D'Satmar Ltd (1160643); office 315–317 Great Clowes Street, Salford M7 2FZ.[17]
Cong Yetev Lev D'Satmar M/C Ltd Manchester / Salford Charity 1115899; grants and religious services; income £238,120 (year to 31 August 2024).[18]
Canvey Island Jewish Centre former Castle View School, Meppel Avenue, Canvey Island SS8 9RZ Bought 24 March 2016; shul, simchah hall, grocery, boys’ and girls’ schools, yeshiva ketanah; Satmar-majority mixed Hasidic kehillah, loosely Aaron Teitelbaum.[19]

Charities and related companies

Registered vehicles
Name Number Role
The Bais Rochel Dsatmar Charitable Trust 281371 Owns Beis Rochel d'Satmar Girls' School; donated to Talmud Torah Torah Veyirah D'Satmar London Limited; related-party payments to Satmar Meats & Poultry Ltd.[11]
Talmud Torah Torah Veyirah D'Satmar London Limited 1136378 Boys’ primary proprietor; trustees Solomon Berkowitz, Maurice Freund, Aaron Langberg.
Beis Ruchel D'Satmar (London) Limited 1125988 Girls’ school; trustees Abraham Klein, Jacob Kernkraut, Jacob Herzka.
Beis Ruchel School Ltd 1074439 Manchester / Salford girls’ schools.
KH D'Satmar Ltd 1160643 Salford synagogue, out-of-school club, grants.
Cong Yetev Lev D'Satmar M/C Ltd 1115899 Manchester congregation.
Satmar Torah Trust Ltd — Linked trusteeship with Cong Yetev Lev M/C.
Kollel Yetev Lev Ltd — Linked trusteeship (Benjamin Ollech).
Congregation Yetev Lev Dsatmar Antwerp Limited UK company Antwerp kehilla vehicle; trustee overlap with London Torah Veyirah (Maurice Freund).
Yeitev Lev Eretz Israel Ltd — Israel-facing vehicle; trustee overlap with Bais Rochel (Solomon Berkowitz).
Just Kidding 1186598 Childcare; same circle as Bais Rochel / Torah Veyirah.

Stamford Hill Satmar also ran a Rav Tuv-style programme that brought an estimated twenty Yemenite families to London (1990s–c. 2010) rather than to Israel.[20]

Israel and occupied territory

Israel, the Green Line 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. Satmar does not recognise the state. It still funds and houses people who live under it.

Inside the Green Line (Israel in the 1949 armistice sense)

Named Satmar housing and schools sit on the Israeli side of the 1949 line:

  • Shikun Satmar — north-west Jerusalem housing belt between Ezrat Torah and Tel Arza, in the same Romema / Yirmiyahu Street Haredi strip as Geula and Mea Shearim. This is west / municipal Jerusalem as Israel defined it before 1967, not a named East Jerusalem settlement.
  • Mea Shearim / Geula — historic Old Yishuv and Edah street grid; Satmar and Edah batei din, kashrut offices and draft protests concentrate here.
  • Bnei Brak — Aaron-leaning Satmar families and yeshivas; Israel proper.
  • Elad and Beit Shemesh (including Ramat Beit Shemesh) — satellite Haredi towns inside the Green Line; small Satmar presence among a mixed Haredi population.

Keren Hatzolah’s published purpose is support for yeshivas and poor households that refuse Israeli government stipends. In practice that money follows Edah / Satmar institutions in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak. Charity filings in the US and UK name “Israel”; they do not publish a line-by-line split of grants inside the Green Line versus East Jerusalem or the West Bank.

Over the Green Line: what Satmar does and does not do

Satmar does not found or brand settler towns comparable to Beitar Illit or Modiin Illit (Kiryat Sefer), the giant Haredi cities built after 1967 on occupied West Bank land and now among the largest settlements. Those cities are Agudah / Lithuanian / mixed-Hasidic housing markets, not Satmar courts. Aaron Teitelbaum has blamed Jews “living in the territories” for the violence that follows, a line consistent with opposing Religious-Zionist (and, by extension, mass Haredi) settlement while still funding anti-draft Haredi life in the land of Israel.[21]

Activity that does cross the Green Line is institutional and ritual, not a Satmar municipal project:

Occupied territory and East Jerusalem
Place Status Satmar / Edah activity
Western Wall / Old City holy sites Occupied East Jerusalem (taken 1967) After the 1967 war Teitelbaum forbade prayer at the Wall and other captured sites in Al Ha-Geulah ve-Al Ha-Temurah, arguing that worship there would confer legitimacy on the state. That ban is a Satmar rule about occupied ground; it is the opposite of Religious-Zionist pilgrimage.
Municipal East Jerusalem (shops, hotels, shemita produce, arba minim) Occupied East Jerusalem under Israeli municipal annexation Edah HaChareidis Badatz kashrut supervision runs city-wide. Hotels and food businesses in central and East Jerusalem carry Edah hechsherim. That is commercial-religious jurisdiction across the Green Line, not a Satmar housing estate.
Ramat Shlomo, Neve Yaakov, Ramot (east sections), Givat Ze'ev East Jerusalem / West Bank settlement belt Haredi neighbourhoods over the line. Edah-type households live there; Satmar does not advertise a named kehillah as it does Shikun Satmar.
Beitar Illit, Modiin Illit / Kiryat Sefer West Bank settlements Largest Haredi settler cities. Edah umbrella literature lists members in Kiryat Sefer and Beitar Illit. Those are other courts’ and Litvish families’ housing. Satmar leadership publicly treats “the territories” as a Religious-Zionist error, not a Satmar mitzvah.
Draft resistance / CRC–Edah protests Students live on both sides of the line Anti-conscription campaign (including the 2025 “Cry of the Exile” in New York) covers yeshiva boys wherever they are registered in “Eretz Yisrael,” including settlement yeshivas. The demand is exemption from the IDF, not a Satmar flag over Beitar.

How to read the map

Satmar’s named geography in the country is west Jerusalem plus Bnei Brak, Elad and Beit Shemesh — Green Line Israel — plus an Edah presidency that historically claimed the Old Yishuv of Jerusalem as a whole. Its doctrine treats 1967 conquest as illegitimate, forbids using the Kotel as a Zionist shrine, and funds those who will not take state money. Its money (Keren Hatzolah, Yeitev Lev Eretz Israel Ltd and related UK/US vehicles) is declared for “Israel” without a public Green Line / OPT ledger. Its people overlap the Edah world, some of whom live in East Jerusalem neighbourhoods and in Beitar / Modiin Illit. That overlap is not the same as Satmar building settlements.

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.[22]

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.[23]

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.[24]

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.[25]
  • 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.[26]
  • 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.

Satmar and Chabad-Lubavitch

Satmar and Chabad-Lubavitch are the two largest organised Hasidic projects in the postwar United States, and they are ideological opposites. Satmar built an insulated Yiddish enclave in Williamsburg and later Kiryas Joel. Chabad, from 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, built a global network of shluchim aimed at non-observant Jews. Joel Teitelbaum treated other Jews who accepted Zionism or modern Hebrew as heretics to be fenced off; Menachem Mendel Schneerson treated them as a field for outreach.[27]

Shared ancestry, opposite conclusions

Pre-state Lubavitch rebbes Sholom Dovber Schneersohn and Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn opposed secular Zionism on messianic grounds similar to Hayyim Elazar Shapira of Munkacz, the Hungarian source for Teitelbaum.[28] After 1948 and especially after 1967 the paths diverged. Satmar froze anti-Zionism as a total system in Vayoel Moshe and Al Ha-Geulah ve-Al Ha-Temurah. Schneerson treated Israeli military victories, including Entebbe and the capture of the Western Wall, as events with religious meaning and encouraged prayer at the Wall. Teitelbaum called that reading a false redemption, condemned Schneerson by name in the 1967–68 tract, and forbade prayer at sites taken in the war because it would confer legitimacy on the state.[29]

The same split runs through language. Teitelbaum’s essay on lashon ha-kodesh treats modern Hebrew as a Zionist garment of impurity. Chabad uses modern Hebrew freely in Israel and in outreach.[29]

Street conflict, 1977

The theological quarrel became a neighbourhood quarrel in Brooklyn. The New York Times reported that in spring 1977 Satmar and Lubavitch Hasidim fought in the streets over Israel and “neighbourhood sanctity.” A candy store was burned, a caravan stoned, Israeli flags burned, a rabbi hung in effigy. Lubavitch support for the Entebbe raid was the ideological trigger; a Lubavitch Lag BaOmer march of about 2,000 into Williamsburg on 9 April met a Satmar crowd of similar size on Bedford Avenue. Each side accused the other of assault.[30]

Geography still encodes the split: Satmar-majority South Williamsburg versus Chabad-majority Crown Heights. Satmar literature treats Chabad’s media presence and comfort with secular institutions as a form of Modern Orthodoxy in Hasidic dress, not as a peer court.

Messianism

After Schneerson’s death in 1994 a Chabad meshichist stream proclaimed him the Messiah. Satmar messianism runs the other way: Zionism is the false messiah that must be refused so that the true redemption can arrive. The two courts therefore accuse each other of corrupting the idea of Mashiach — Chabad by attaching it to a dead rebbe and to the Israeli state, Satmar by making anti-Zionism itself a redemptive test.[28]

What they still share

Both reject drafting yeshiva students into the IDF. Both operate large New York welfare and school systems and both appear in American electoral brokerage. They do not share pulpits, kashrut, schools or marriage markets. Satmar’s denunciations of Neturei Karta for marching with Israel’s enemies do not create an opening to Chabad; the forbidden act, in Satmar terms, is granting the state religious standing, which Chabad does as a matter of policy.


Voting bloc, Skver and the Williamsburg courts

Williamsburg Satmar under Moshe Dovid Niederman and the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn (UJO) is routinely described as New York City’s largest Orthodox voting bloc. Endorsements track yeshiva regulation, welfare and street safety more than Israel policy.

In June 2025 the main Williamsburg court (Zalman Teitelbaum) plus Pupa, Vizhnitz, Vien, Tzelim, Nitra, Krasna, Skver and Klausenburg endorsed Andrew Cuomo for mayor, after Satmar Ahronim (Aaron Teitelbaum) 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.[31]

Skver

Skver (Skverer Hasidim), based in the all-Hasidic village of New Square in Rockland County, is the nearest American peer to Satmar in Hungarian-style stringency, Yiddish everyday life and a purpose-built upstate enclave. It is smaller: New Square’s bloc is routinely put at about 3,000 votes, against tens of thousands for the two Satmar factions combined.[32] The rebbe is David Twersky; his endorsements in Hudson Valley congressional races are treated as swing assets.

The two courts are not a single theology. Skver is less identified with Vayoel Moshe anti-Zionism as a public programme. What they share is resistance to New York Regents and yeshiva secular-curriculum rules, and a preference for incumbents who already deliver housing, welfare and school quiet.

That produced the 2022 outlier. After Bobov and much of Borough Park moved to Republican Lee Zeldin over the Board of Regents’ yeshiva vote, Aaron Teitelbaum’s Kiryas Joel Satmar and New Square Skver stayed with Democrat Kathy Hochul. Skver also backed Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney in NY-17. New Square mayor Izzy Spitzer defended the line as keeping a partner already in Albany; Satmar activists in the upstate enclave were described as aligned with that choice.[33][34] Williamsburg Zalis Satmar did not issue a gubernatorial endorsement that cycle. A Skver presence in Borough Park was separately claimed for Zeldin, showing that “Skver” on a Brooklyn street is not always the New Square rebbe’s bloc.

In September 2026 both Satmar rebbes and a son of the Skverer Rebbe sat in the same White House meeting with Donald Trump, alongside Bobov and Monsey Vizhnitz — cooperation on prisons, housing and the Israeli draft, not a merger of courts.[35]

UJO: a civic machine, not one rebbe

South Williamsburg is Satmar-majority but not Satmar-only. Smaller Hungarian and Galician courts keep their own shtieblach and schools while using a shared civic machine. UJO was founded in 1966. Niederman has been executive director since 1989. He previously ran Rav Tov, the Satmar refugee organisation set up at Joel Teitelbaum’s instruction in 1973. UJO presents itself as a coalition of more than 200 groups serving on the order of 70,000 people; 2024 figures cite 93,131 walk-in clients. Services run in Yiddish and English: housing, Medicaid, food stamps, immigration, seniors, a kosher pantry opened 2026 at 365 Flushing Avenue with Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. City capital funds of $5.5 million were secured in 2025 for a headquarters at 498 Bedford Avenue.[36][37]

The courts in that machine, and on the 2025 Cuomo list, are political partners, not theological copies:

  • Pupa — Hungarian court; historic Williamsburg neighbour; co-founder circle of the Central Rabbinical Congress with Satmar.
  • Vizhnitz — Galician/Bukovinian; Williamsburg kloiz plus a separate Monsey rebbe who joined the 2026 White House meeting.
  • Vien (Kehal Adas Yereim Vien) — Oberlander / Viennese origin under Yonasan Steif; another CRC founding circle; most members now Hasidic in dress and custom because of Satmar proximity, not because Vien was founded as a Satmar clone.
  • Klausenburg (Sanz-Klausenburg) — Williamsburg hall; separate Israeli and Netanya institutions; non-Satmar Sanz theology.
  • Nitra — Hungarian yeshiva court; Williamsburg and Mount Kisco; CRC milieu.
  • Krasna — small Hungarian court in the same street grid.
  • Tzelim (Tzelem) — Williamsburg partner named on the Cuomo slate.
  • Belz — neighbourhood partner in some slates. This is street politics. In 1979 Satmar students wrecked a Belz synagogue in Williamsburg in a fight over religious courts in Israel; the courts have long disagreed about Agudat Yisrael and Israeli institutions even when they share Bedford Avenue.
  • Skver — New Square votes with Satmar when the issue is Albany and yeshivas; it is not a Williamsburg street court.

Niederman is the translator of that patchwork into City Hall and Albany language. The coalition can deliver a claimed high-turnout Williamsburg Orthodox vote on the order of 10,000. It does not require Pupa, Vien or Klausenburg to accept Vayoel Moshe, nor Skver to accept Satmar succession claims.

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. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Charity Commission accounts, The Bais Rochel Dsatmar Charitable Trust 281371, year ended 31 December 2024.
  12. ↑ Powerbase / GIAS listing for Beis Rochel D'Satmar School, Bethune Road.
  13. ↑ The Jewish Chronicle, DfE lifts sanctions against Chasidic school in Stamford Hill, 21 March 2025.
  14. ↑ Giving is Great / Charity Commission, Beis Ruchel D'Satmar (London) Limited 1125988.
  15. ↑ The Jewish Chronicle, Ofsted admits error, 17 May 2026.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 JCR-UK, Satmar Beth Hamedrash Kehal Yetev Lev.
  17. ↑ Charity Commission, KH D'SATMAR LTD 1160643.
  18. ↑ Charity Commission, CONG YETEV LEV D'SATMAR M/C LTD 1115899.
  19. ↑ JCR-UK, Canvey Island Jewish Community.
  20. ↑ Ben Weich, Satmar Chasidim and Yemenite families in Stamford Hill The Jewish Chronicle, 3 October 2019.
  21. ↑ The Yeshiva World, Satmar Rebbe of Kiryas Yoel: it's their fault for living in the territories The Yeshiva World.
  22. ↑ Times of Israel, Central Rabbinical Congress coverage of October 2025 rally.
  23. ↑ Ynet, Satmar slams Neturei Karta over Iran conference Ynet News, 2006.
  24. ↑ Jewish Press, Satmar Rebbe condemns Neturei Karta for supporting Hamas murders The Jewish Press, 13 November 2023.
  25. ↑ Forward, Blurring out Satmar history The Forward.
  26. ↑ The Yeshiva World, Outliers: Skver joins Satmar in endorsing Hochul The Yeshiva World.
  27. ↑ Jewish Currents, The Making of Satmar Williamsburg, 8 May 2026.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Shaul Magid, The Satmar Are Anti-Zionist. Should We Care? Tablet, 21 May 2020.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Ariel Evan Mayse, “The Calf Awakens: Language, Zionism and Heresy in Twentieth-Century American Hasidism,” in the Brill collection on American Hasidism, 2020.
  30. ↑ New York Times, Hasidim in Brooklyn Feuding Over Israel and Neighborhood Sanctity, 1 June 1977.
  31. ↑ Andrew Cuomo campaign, Cuomo receives major endorsement from Satmar Williamsburg June 2025.
  32. ↑ Matthew Kassel, The high-stakes battle for the Skver vote Jewish Insider, 29 October 2024.
  33. ↑ Jacob Kornbluh, In close race, Hochul walks a fine line on yeshiva education The Forward, 2 November 2022.
  34. ↑ VINnews, After stunning victory, Republicans work to build relationship with New Square’s leaders, 15 November 2022.
  35. ↑ Matthew Kassel, Trump and Hasidic rabbis discuss housing, prison reform and family tax credits Jewish Insider, 3 September 2026.
  36. ↑ United Jewish Organizations, Executive Director.
  37. ↑ United Jewish Organizations, home page, accessed 2026.
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