Chaptzem Blog!      

The steamy Sunday afternoon sun did nothing to shorten the caravan of cars and buses, or the line of men and boys ascending Schunnemunk Road.

They started arriving at the cemetery the previous night. They came from this village, from Brooklyn, from more distant points like Iowa and Montreal. They came to pay their respects and pray at the grave site of the man who founded the Satmar Hasidic movement.

It's been 30 years since the death of Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, who is buried in the cemetery of the village that carries his name. His yartzheit — Yiddish for death anniversary — attracts thousands of Orthodox Jews; this year was no different.

It's an event that has a whiff of controversy these days, as Joel Teitelbaum's great-nephews quarrel over who will lead the 100,000-strong Satmar Hasidic sect.

Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, based in Kiryas Joel, and his younger brother, Zalman, based in Brooklyn, have been struggling for control since even before the 2006 death of their father, Rabbi Moses Teitelbaum, who succeeded Joel Teitelbaum as grand rebbe in 1979.

Both make separate trips to the grave site, and fights have erupted among their supporters in the past. But Moses Witriol, the village's public safety officer, said Aaron Teitelbaum gave strict instructions to his followers on Saturday: keep it peaceful.

Aaron made his trip quietly to his great-uncle's grave site around midday Sunday. Zalman's visit, about four hours later, was not as quiet. As a state police helicopter circled overhead, his caravan pulled into the cemetery and stopped at the gates, surrounded by hundreds of Hasidic men and boys.

They climbed on cars and elbowed their way, trying to spot him through darkly tinted car windows.

But that was as heated as things got. Zalman Teitelbaum visited the grave site, got back in his car and headed back to Brooklyn.

What would Moses Teitelbaum think about the tension sown by his sons' dispute?

"The father," Witriol said, shaking his head, "he would never have taken it."

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090817/NEWS/908170324