Younger Teitelbaum wins control of sect

New York Daily News/July 12, 2006
By Leo Standora

Rabbi Zalmen Teitelbaum has won a victory over his brother in their bitter battle for control of the Satmar Hasidic sect.

An appeals court decision yesterday would keep him in charge of the 25,000-member Brooklyn congregation.

Both Zalmen, 54, and brother Aron, 58, rabbi of the 14,000-member Kiryas Joel congregation in Orange County, claim they're head of the Brooklyn flock.

When the dispute over who's boss went to court, a Brooklyn judge ruled in favor of Zalmen. But a subsequent ruling in an Orange County court said Aron should run things in Brooklyn.

The decision handed down by the Brooklyn Appellate Division yesterday upheld Zalmen's leadership on constitutional grounds, a ruling that followed the wishes of his father, Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum, who died in April.