Satmar Grand Rebbe Won't Get New Guardian

A Brooklyn judge has denied a request by Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum's children to appoint guardians over their 91-year-old grandfather leader of Satmar movement Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum, so they could have greater access to him. In the decision, state Supreme Court Justice John Leventhal said the faction that brought the case failed to prove that the grand rabbi was suffering any harm under his current caretakers.
The decision is a blow for Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum, eldest son of the grand rebbe. Several of Aron's children were among those who brought the guardianship petition, which claimed Zalman's allies were holding the aging Satmar leader in virtual isolation in his Williamsburg home. Leventhal said he and his staff visited the grand rebbe at his home on Oct. 31, observed him studying and walking and found him "satisfied with the care he is receiving." Six people look after the Grand Rabbi, including a paramedic and a 24-hour butler, the judge said. "A guardianship proceeding," Leventhal concluded, "is not the proper avenue for a resolution of a family dispute," "We believe the decision was in error," Steven Finkelstein, the petitioners' attorney, responded yesterday. He and his clients hadn't decided whether to appeal.


Supreme Court Justice John M. Leventhal's decision