Williamsburg, Brooklyn - Eliot Spitzer Skips One Rebbe's Shiva

Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY - Gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer got his signals mixed when he made a shiva call to only one of the feuding sons of late Satmar Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum, snubbing the son from Orange County, NY.

Spitzer's representatives said the state attorney general wasn't trying to slight Aron Teitelbaum - he just didn't realize the rabbi was in Brooklyn, he simply thought Aron was still in Monroe, NY with his Kiryas Joel flock.
Spitzer visited Zalmen Teitelbaum at his Williamsburg home. But he didn't stop to see Aron, who is based in Orange County, but was at a Williamsburg residence as well.
Sen. Chuck Schumer and City Controller William Thompson visited both brothers.

"Eliot paid his respects to the great work and leadership of the deceased grand rabbi," said a Spitzer aide. "This was not a political event, and no greater meaning should be read into it."
Last night, Spitzer's representatives were scrambling to set up a shiva call to Aron Teitelbaum, to fix the political miscue. The shiva period of mourning for the late grand rebbe, who died last Monday, ends at 10 a.m. today.

Aron Teitelbaum, 58, head of the Satmar congregation in Kiryas Joel, Orange County, accepted the mantel of new grand rebbe last week, claiming he had the backing of 75% of the sect's members.
But Zalmen Teitelbaum, 53, also claimed to be the new grand rebbe, citing his father's will naming him successor to the post.