Moshe Teitelbaum (Satmar)

In April 2006, when Moshe died, the two sides negotiated through intermediaries over who would speak at his funeral, and in what order. Both sides declared their leader as the Rebbe.

On April 24, 2006, at the age of 91, Teitelbaum died of cancer. Tens of thousands of members of the Jewish community attended his funeral and burial procession in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and later in Kiryas Joel, New York. Eulogies in the main Satmar synagogue in Williamsburg were said by all the rebbe's children or their husbands, in order of their respective ages. Teitelbaum was buried near his uncle Joel in the sect's cemetery in Kiryas Joel.

In May 1999, Moshe Teitelbaum appointed his third son, Zalman, as the local leader of the Williamsburg congregation. Until then, he had been the leader of Satmar in Jerusalem. This was seen as a signal from Moshe that Zalman was to lead Satmar after his death, overturning the previous assumption that he would be succeeded by his eldest son, Aaron. He was his father's representative in communal affairs, and assumed his father's responsibilities when his father traveled.

Moshe's will named Zalman as his successor, but Aaron's supporters dispute its validity, claiming that Moshe had suffered from dementia since 1997.

In 1989, tensions between Moshe and the Bnei Yoel were exacerbated. In an April 1989 Passover speech, Moshe referred to the Bnei Yoel as "infidels". He later enacted a rule that new residents had to obtain permission from village leaders before moving in. In 1990, the two groups erupted in violence when a supporter of Fayga tried to erect a gate outside her home. A melee erupted, hundreds of angry Hasidim poured into the streets, three men were dragged from a car that was then set on fire, and three police officers were injured. Supporters of Alta Fayga in Kiryas Joel claimed that they have been physically attacked, and profanities were written on their sidewalk.

Around August 1980, Moshe formally succeeded Joel as the Satmar Rebbe in an elaborate "crowning" in Kiryas Joel, New York. At the ceremony, Moshe spoke and acknowledged that he cannot replace Joel, telling the Hasidim not to expect from him what they received from Joel.

Under Moshe's guidance, from 1980 until 2006, Satmar doubled in size to around 100,000–120,000 followers, the largest Hasidic group in the United States. At the time of his death, Satmar's real estate holdings were valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.

In 1979, Moshe's uncle Joel died, without an heir to inherit leadership of Satmar. The most logical successor was his nephew Moshe, then at the age of sixty-six. He was considered intelligent, a scholar, and a good speaker. There was some uneasiness about appointing Moshe, because in the years prior, he had limited contact with Satmar, led his own Hasidic group, and did not necessarily have the same absolutist outlook, level of scholarship, or intense piety, as his late uncle. Nevertheless, it was understood that the community was better off with a leader, and having Moshe as the Rebbe was the best for the community under the given circumstances. The Satmar Council of Elders was a thirteen-member lay-person body elected by Satmar Hasidim. The Council unanimously decided on Moshe as their next Rebbe. Moshe could have turned down the appointment and remained as leader of his small Sighet sect, but leadership of Satmar promised far more power and prestige. The Council and Moshe then negotiated and planned the details on Moshe's official appointment. A few weeks later, on one day's notice, a general meeting in the main Rodney Street synagogue was announced. At the meeting, in which Moshe was not present, Sender Deutsch, leader of the Council, announced the appointment of Moshe as the new rebbe of Satmar.

The couple initially moved back to Senta, where Teitelbaum led a congregation before the war. When he found out that his brother Yekusiel Yehuda Teitelbaum had been murdered in the Holocaust, he decided to fill his brother's position as rabbi of Sighet. Soon thereafter, they were forced to flee Communist persecution, leaving for Prague and then setting sail for New York City, where they arrived in fall 1947. There, Teitelbaum became known as the Sigheter Rebbe, leading Sighet Chassidus, previously led by his ancestors. He initially established a beth midrash, Atzei Chaim Siget, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and later moved to Borough Park, Brooklyn, in 1966.

In 1946, Teitelbaum married Pessel Leah, the daughter of Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum of Volovo. Pessel Leah's entire family was killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

In late spring 1944, the Hungarian government, assisted by Nazi forces led by Adolf Eichmann, began deporting Jews en-masse. Teitelbaum and his wife Leah were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where his wife and three children were murdered, and he nearly died. Teitelbaum was then transferred to the Brabag plant in Tröglitz, and afterwards to Theresienstadt, where he was liberated in 1945.

Teitelbaum received rabbinical Ordination, and was appointed dean of the Karacscka yeshiva. In 1936, Teitelbaum married Leah Meir, daughter of Rabbi Hanoch Heinoch Meir of Karecska. In 1939, he became the rabbi of Senta, Yugoslavia (now Serbia).

Moshe (Moses) Teitelbaum (Yiddish: משה טײטלבױם; November 1, 1914 – April 24, 2006) was a Hasidic rebbe and the world leader of the Satmar Hasidim.

Moshe Teitelbaum was born on November 17, 1914, in Újfehértó, Hungary. He was the second son of Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Teitelbaum, author of Atzei Chaim, the previous Sigheter Rebbe. His mother, Bracha Sima, hailed from the prominent Halbershtam family. Moshe and his older brother, Yekusiel Yehuda Teitelbaum, were orphaned in 1926, when they were eleven and fourteen, respectively. Moshe was raised by family friends and relatives, including his uncle, Joel Teitelbaum, and his grandfather, Rabbi Shulem Eliezer Halberstam of Ratzfert.