The Satmar Sect

Generally, you hear about this sort of thing occurring in the past tense. Deeply fundamentalist religious sect, muddied lines of familial succession, violent split between advocates of the two sons, and all the rest. But for the 100,000 person strong Hasidic Satmar sect, it's happening now.

The other night, their Grand Rebbe, Moses Teitelbaum, died, at 91. Aaron, his oldest son, was expected to succeed the father, but Teitelbaum came to judge him as headstrong and impetuous, incapable of handling such responsibility. So the father split the congregation, handing the base of Williamsburg to a younger son, Zalmen. The brothers grew into bitter rivals, refusing to speak for the next seven years. So did the community, which fractured into partisans of the two siblings, called "Zalis" and "Aaronis". The groups have emerged warring gangs, battling for control of an organization that's a political, social, and economic machine with assets totaling more than a billion dollars. Over the last decade, there've been brawls and bombings, torched cars and detonated homes. Last year, a Satmar member who runs a nightclub recruited his black bouncers for a brawl in a Williamsburg synagogue.

Meanwhile, the sect itself continues to explode in membership. It's fervently anti-Zionist (a former Grand Rebbe blamed the Zionists for the holocaust), and the two brothers are battling for control in court. And, to be clear, I have no interesting points to make on this, it's just a fascinating story.