Chaptzem Blog!      

Satmar feud escalates with Grand Rebbe's death

As the world’s largest chasidic sect mourns the death this week of the Satmar Grand Rebbe Moshe Teitelbaum, the bitter, litigious — and sometimes violent — feud between two of his sons shows no sign of cooling.

In a flurry of courtroom motions, rabbinic rulings and shoving matches on Tuesday and Wednesday, the dispute rapidly shifted from designated succession toward a new struggle between two men, each claiming he is now the new rebbe.

Fighting erupted at a predawn funeral service Tuesday in upstate Kiryas Joel over the inclusion of a grandson of the rebbe among the speakers. There were conflicting accounts of what caused the unrest, which was calmed by state troopers and left two men injured.

Later in the day both sides pointed to events they say designated either Aaron Teitelbaum or his younger brother Zalman Lieb the new rebbe. The rabbi’s will named Zalman, 54, who lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, his successor, but supporters of Aaron, 57, who lives in upstate Kiryas Joel, insist the designation is invalid. Some say the rabbi was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and not competent to make the decision, while insisting the board of directors of the central synagogue, Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar are the only ones entitled to make the determination.

A supporter of Aaron’s, Isac Weinberger, claimed Wednesday that meetings would be taking place in Israel, England and upstate Monsey at which Aaron would be declared “the rebbe of Satmar until the Messiah comes.”

In court on Tuesday and Wednesday, in both Brooklyn and Orange County, lawyers for both sides argued over a wide range of issues, including ownership of the rebbe’s property and the definition of membership in the Satmar synagogue. A key issue was whether a supporter of Aaron, Berl Friedman, should have administrative powers on the Satmar board of directors, which Zalman supporters took as favoring Aaron in the dispute.

http://www.ww4report.com/node/1888