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In Brooklyn, Hasidim build shul in a flash



In a feat worthy of the Guinness Book of World Records, followers of Kiryas Joel Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum accomplished in two weeks — with cinder blocks, mortar and a feverish sense of urgency — what they had failed to do in five years of court-fighting with their rivals.

On a street corner in Williamsburg, the Brooklyn base of the 120,000-strong Satmar Hasidic movement, professional workmen and Satmar volunteers laboring around the clock erected a 2,300-seat synagogue in roughly the time it takes to lay the foundation for an ordinary building project.

And with hours to go before sundown and the start of Rosh Hashana on Sept. 22, the faithful hustled pews across the street from another synagogue they had been using, and prepared to begin celebrating the High Holy Days in their new, 13,000-square-foot home.

"Everybody, young and old, people from 10 years old to 80 years old — in an hour, they filled the shul with benches," said Shimon Rolnitzky, a Kiryas Joel resident and writer for the Yiddish weekly newspaper Der Blatt.

The speedy construction marks a new chapter in the ongoing feud between Aron Teitelbaum and his younger brother, Rabbi Zalmen Teitelbaum, each of whom commands a loyal following in Kiryas Joel, Brooklyn and other Satmar enclaves around the world.

The two factions have been fighting in court since 2001 over control of the Williamsburg chapter's assets — an empire that includes roughly $372 million worth of buildings and land in Brooklyn, Sullivan County and Ulster County, according to an appraisal filed in court.

Zalmen Teitelbaum's side rules the empire, and five years of litigation has failed to topple them. A court appeal is pending, but Aron Teitelbaum and his followers, resorting to Plan B, have begun to establish a parallel network of buildings in Williamsburg in case they never dislodge their rivals.

Hence the new synagogue at Kent Avenue and Hooper Street. Zalmen Teitelbaum's followers, who recently occupied a cavernous, new shul of their own, have snickered about the hastily built "Home Depot shul." His brother's supporters say it's only temporary and hint at plans to build the biggest synagogue in New York City.

Regardless, both sides now have a place to celebrate the joyous holiday of Simchat Torah on Oct. 14. Thousands of Kiryas Joel residents will pour into Williamsburg to join the festivities that day as the Teitelbaum brothers, each surrounded by chanting supporters, dance with the Torah in synagogues less than half a mile apart.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061003/NEWS/610030318/-1/NEWS