Satmar

bowing before King Carol II of Romania, 1936 Transylvania Chananya Yom Tov Lipa Teitelbaum was the Grand Rebbe of the Sighet Hasidic dynasty. He died in 1904, and was succeeded by his oldest son, Chaim Tzvi Teitelbaum. A few Sighet Hasidim preferred his second son, Joel, as their leader. Joel Teitelbaum left the town of Máramarossziget, and, on 8 September 1905, he settled in Szatmárnémeti (in Yiddish: Satmar). His Sighet supporters followed him, and he began to attract a following. Hungarian journalist Dezső Schön, who researched the Teitelbaum rabbis in the 1930s, wrote that Teitelbaum started referring to himself as the "Rebbe of Satmar" at that time. In America A year after his daughter's death in Jerusalem, A similar figure of 120,000 was cited by sociologist Samuel Heilman. However, anthropologist Jacques Gutwirth estimated in 2004 that Satmar numbered about 50,000. As of 2006, the dynasty controlled assets worth $1 billion in the United States. == Communities ==

The two largest Satmar communities are in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Kiryas Joel, New York. There are also significant Satmar communities in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and in Monsey and Bloomingburg, New York. Smaller concentrations can be found elsewhere. In North America, there are institutions in Los Angeles; Lakewood, New Jersey; and Montreal. Elsewhere, cities such as Antwerp, London, and Manchester; and in Argentina and Australia have Satmar groups, and there are many spread throughout Israel. Aaron Teitelbaum has stated that he wants to establish a community in Romania too. There is a small community of Satmar gerim (converts) living in Guatemala, having rejected the Lev Tahor cult which initially converted the group before being expelled from the country. The community of about 40 families has the full backing of the Satmar community in Williamsburg. In addition to the Grand Rabbis' two main congregations, Chaim Yehoshua Halberstam, chief rabbi of the Satmar community in Monsey, became its local leader. Unlike the two brothers, Halberstam does not lay claim to the entire sect, though he conducts himself in the manner of a Hasidic Rebbe, accepting kvitel and holding tish. Another son, Lipa Teitelbaum, established his own congregation and calls himself Zenter Rav, in homage to the town of Senta, Serbia, where his father served as rabbi before World War II. ==Ideology==

The principles of Satmar reflect Joel Teitelbaum's adherence to the Hungarian ultra-Orthodox school of thought, a particularly extreme variety, ==Women's role==

Satmar women are required to cover their necklines fully, and to wear long sleeves, long, conservative skirts, and full stockings. Whereas married Orthodox Jewish women do not show their hair in public, in Satmar, this is taken a step further: Satmar women shave their heads after their weddings, and wear a wig or other covering over their heads, while some cover the wig with a small hat or scarf. The Grand Rebbe also insisted that the stockings of women and girls be fully opaque, a norm accepted by other Hungarian Hasidic groups which revered him. Joel Teitelbaum opened Satmar's "Bais Ruchel" all-girls school network only because he feared that if he did not, many parents would send their daughters to Bais Yaakov. In 2016, the sect issued a decree warning that university education for women is "dangerous", and banning women who receive it from their school. Written in Yiddish, the decree warns: ==Institutions==

The sect operates numerous community foundations. Bikur Cholim ("Visiting the sick"), established in 1957 by Teitelbaum's wife Alte Feiga, concerns itself with helping hospitalized Jews, regardless of affiliation. Rav Tuv, founded in the 1950s to help Jews in the Soviet Union, aids Jewish refugees. Today, the organization mostly helps Jews from Iran and Yemen. Keren Hatzolah is a charitable fund to support yeshivas and the poor in Israel, providing for those who shun government benefits. Teitelbaum founded a network of large educational institutions, both yeshivas and girls' schools. If its schools in New York were a public school system, it would be the fourth-largest system in the state, after those of New York City, Buffalo, and Rochester. Satmar also operates its own rabbinical courts, which settle various issues within the community by the principles of Jewish Law. The sect has a Yiddish newspaper called Der Yid, now privatized, and various other Yiddish publications. It is currently identified with Zalman's Hasidim; whereas Der Blatt, established in 2000, is owned and run by a follower of Aaron's. In 1994, the U.S. Supreme Court held, in Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet, that a school district whose boundaries had been drawn to include only Satmar children violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In February 2025, the New York State Education Department cut funding to two Satmar yeshivas for failing to meet secular education standards in core subjects such as English and math. As of May 2025, legislation was pending which would delay consequences for Hasidic and other religious schools that failed to meet secular standards and make it significantly easier for such schools to demonstrate compliance with the law. Image:Satmer Yeshiva.jpg|Entrance of the Satmar Yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York File:PS 71K Beth Rachel Satmar school 2010 jeh.jpg|Beis Rochel, Brooklyn == In media ==

The Satmar community of Williamsburg was portrayed in the Netflix miniseries Unorthodox in 2020, with consultation from Eli Rosen, a former Hasidic community member. A majority of the show's dialogue is in Yiddish. == Notable people ==

• Deborah Feldman, vocal critic of Satmar • Moshe Aryeh Freund (1894–1996), chief rabbi of the Edah HaChareidis • Yossi Green (born 1955), American composer • Chaim Yehoshua Halberstam, Satmar rabbi in Monsey, New York • Moshe Indig, rabbi and political influencer • Louis Kestenbaum (born 1952), American real estate developer • Meilech Kohn (born 1969), American singer • Aaron Teitelbaum (born 1947), rebbe of Satmar in Kiryas Yoel, New York • Joel Teitelbaum (1887–1979), founding rebbe of Satmar • Moshe Teitelbaum (1914–2006), rebbe • Zalman Teitelbaum (born 1951), rebbe of Satmar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn • Shmueli Ungar, singer • Frieda Vizel (born 1985), American YouTuber ==See also==