Kiryas Yoel MonDroe Cemetery Battle Becomes Legal Affair

Kiryas Yoel MonDroe -- A long-simmering dispute over which faction controls the cemetery where the revered founder of the Satmar Chasidic movement is buried has finally boiled over into court.
One side from Kiryas Yoel recently filed a lawsuit claiming its rivals in Brooklyn are improperly trying to assert control over the burial ground.
They insist the sacred ground belongs jointly to the main Satmar congregations in Kiryas Yoel and Brooklyn, and they believe, that their side controls the Brooklyn congregation.

Part of the lawsuit deals with issues connected to the rebbe's anniversary, including the selection of organizations that can collect donations at the cemetery during the event. Police say they expect nothing worse at this year's anniversary, which falls on Aug. 31.

But the larger, year-round issues raised by the case are over which side decides who may be buried in the cemetery. The spark for the cemetery lawsuit appears to have been a letter from one defendant on June 30 declaring that the other side can no longer bury its family members in Kiryas Yoel "without written permission from our Congregation."
The letter also declared that anyone who wants to set up a fundraising booth during the upcoming anniversary of the rebbe's death would need the congregation's permission.