Thursday, May 10, 2012
Ulster County says KJ dissidents can keep running camps
Ulster County Executive Mike Hein ruled Wednesday
that Kiryas Joel dissidents can continue to operate four Jewish summer
camps in the southwestern portion of the county.
"The
Ulster County Department of Health does not have the authority to
divide these camps among the two factions of the Satmar community,"
County Attorney Bea Havranek wrote in a three-page letter.
Camp Rav Tov has been run for years by affiliates of Hasidic leader Zalman Teitelbaum.
But this year, Zalman's older brother — Aaron
Teitelbaum — also filed a permit to run some of the camps. Hein's office
decided to keep on issuing all the permits to allies of Zalman.
Aaron's faction is in charge of the Kiryas Joel synagogue, but Zalman's allies are dominant in Brooklyn.
Some
3,800 Williamsburg-area teens attend the religious summer camps in
Dairyland, Kerhonkson, Napanoch and Ulster Heights. The camps cost
roughly $650 per family.
The Brooklyn-based Rosenberg family has been running the Rav Tov campsites for the past four decades.
After the 2006 death of Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum, Rabbi David Rosenberg aligned himself with Zalman.
"The
camps will be run the way they always have been, by the people who have
always run them," said Rabbi Issac Mandel, an ally of the Zalman
faction.
Both Zalman and Aaron's supporters claim to be the rightful leaders of Congregation Yetev Lev in Brooklyn.
Courts have ruled that the Satmars must work out secession issues among themselves.
Yetev Lev owns the camps in Wawarsing and Rochester.
Zalman's
followers — representing themselves as the sole congregation members —
transferred all the camp property to Rosenberg in December 2010.
Aaron's followers challenged the transfer in court, arguing that the congregation's leadership remains under dispute.
Supreme Court Judge James Gilpatric voided the property transfer in September 2011.
"The
initial application by the (Zalman's) is the quintessence of
non-disclosure, bordering on a fraudulent application," Gilpatric wrote.
Four
months later, Zalman and Aaron's followers — both calling themselves
Congregation Yetev Lev — filed for permits with Ulster County's Health
Department to run the camps. Hein met with both sects on two occasions,
while Havranek met with the lawyers once. They reached the conclusion,
according to Havranek's letter, that the Hasidic foes wouldn't solve the
dispute on their own.
"A deep divide exists
amongst the Satmar community that extends beyond the issue at hand,"
Havranek wrote. "The County does not wish to be part of that controversy
nor will it."
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