Satmar (Hasidic dynasty)

Satmar ( Hebrew: סאטמאר, also סאטמר ) is a Hasidic group ( " Court "), which was founded by Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum 1905. It is named after the city Szatmárnémeti where they originated. After the Second World War, the sect was re-established in New York.

History

On February 15, 1904 Hananiah Yom Tov Lipa Teitelbaum, the Admor of the Sighet Hasidic sect died. His older son, Haim Zvi, inherited his place. A small group of his followers regarded the second son, Joel, as the rightful successor. Joel left Sighet; after a stay with his father- in Radomyśl Wielki he moved on September 8, 1905 by Szatmárnémeti ( Yiddish: Satmar ) around. There, he gained followers, and after a short time he called himself Rebbe of Satmar.

In the spring of 1911 Teitelbaum was appointed rabbi of the city Ilosva. The basis of Sighet sect - - 1920, as a result of the Treaty of Trianon, was the north-eastern part of Hungary between Romania and Czechoslovakia split. Many Hasidim in Czechoslovakia could not travel regularly to Haim Zvi " Hof" in Romania, and turned to Joel. Died in 1926, the older brother. Officially, he was succeeded by his 14 -year-old son Jude Jekusiel; but almost all of Sighet were followers of the Satmar Hasidim Rebbe, who now had a large following.

1944 Teitelbaum was saved by Kasztner train to a concentration camp before being deported. On September 26, 1946, he moved to New York. There he began his sect, which was severely affected by the Holocaust, to restore. In April 1948, the " Kahal Jetew Lew d' Satmar " was founded, the official organization of the grouping. In contrast to the legal situation in the old Jewish communities in Europe, the Satmars and other Hasidic movements in the United States were able to establish their own independent organizations. The statutes of " Kahal Jetew Lew " Teitelbaum recognized as the life-long spiritual head of the community. 1968 Satmar was finally with 1,300 families Satmar Hasidic sect was already the largest in New York.

Teitelbaum died in 1979 and was succeeded by his nephew Moshe Teitelbaum as his successor. Since his death in 2006 his sons Aaron and body Salman fight over the inheritance. Both claim to be the rightful successor as Rebbe; Salman is the Hauptrabinner the large Satmar community in Williamsburg ( Brooklyn ), and Aaron's center is Kiryas Joel.

Followers

The supporters are referred to as Satmar Hasidim -. The largest number of followers live in Williamsburg ( Brooklyn ) in New York City, followed by Kiryas Joel (New York), Boro Park ( Brooklyn ), and Monsey (New York ) and other ultra-Orthodox population centers. 1990, there were 23,000 students in the educational institutions of the Satmar Hasidim -: 19,000 in the United States, 2,000 in Israel, 1,000 in the UK and a further 1,000 in Austria, Belgium, Brazil and Argentina.

2006 sources alleged that the Satmar 119,000 supporters - including women and children - have, and thus be the largest movement of modern Hasidism. The sociologist Prof. Samuel Heilman had a similar number, 120,000 indicated. The anthropologist Dr. Jacques Gutwirth however, wrote in 2004 that there were only 50,000 members worldwide in the Satmar community, Hasidim and their family members zusammengereechnet. The sect has assets of around one billion dollars in the United States.

Ideology

The main feature of Satmar today is the strict rejection of all secular Zionism, which will not be led by the Messiah himself. Joel Teitelbaum was a representative of the Hungarian ultra-Orthodoxy ( not to be confused with the general ultra-Orthodox Judaism ), a flow which originated in the 1860s. Led by Rabbi Hillel Lichtenstein (1815 - 1894), the ultra-Orthodox rejected any kind of acculturation and modernization categorically. Their attacks they were not directed against the liberal neolog, but against Rabbi Hildesheimer Esriel of Eisenstadt, one of the founders of modern Orthodoxy. Lichtenstein's followers were forced to use also un - halachic sources to promote their strict belief, and turned to Aggada. Teitelbaum's magnum opus, WaJoel Moshe - " And Moses was content ", which, as many rabbinic works, a Bible quote as the title has contains (2nd Book of Moses 2:21 ) and also a pun on the name ( Joel ), confirmed that any attempt to end the exile of the Jews before the coming of the Messiah, is prohibited by the "Three oaths ", a aggaditischen text in Talmud tractate Ketubot 111 Therefore was, according to Teitelbaum, Zionism a serious heresy. The rabbi was a lifelong opponent of Zionism and the State of Israel.

He and his successors were chairman of Edah HaChareidis, an ultra-Orthodox community in Jerusalem, although none of the earlier rabbis had permanently lived in Jerusalem; This tradition ended in 2006 with the death of Moshe Teitelbaum.