Rabbi Yekusiel Yehuda Teitelbaum, a.k.a. Reb Zalman Leib, one of two Satmar Rebbes and the son of the Rebbe Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, on Sunday night, attacked the sect of Neturei Karta who have been demonstrating in New York City in support of Hamas and against the Jewish State.
“There are those who do not have any ancestral tradition, and carry out actions independently, because they think they understand more than the late Tzaddikim,” the Rebbe said, referring to the fringe group that advocates the “peaceful dismantling” of Israel because its very existence constitutes rebellion against God.
“Unfortunately, we see how far they have strayed from the path,” the Rebbe said. “They are walking around the world together with the Arabs, with those who shout without any shame and support the murders, they walk with them in broad daylight with the Shtreimel and the gown and shout together with the haters of Israel and murderers of souls. This is a terrible desecration of the name of heaven, to strengthen murderers in the name of the Holy Torah and in the name of heaven.”
The Satmar movement is considered anti-Zionist and presents itself as the ideological guardian of the entire Haredi public. They are the biggest contributors to the Haredi community and institutions that do not receive budgets from the State of Israel. However, unlike Neturei Karta, they maintain ties with pro-Zionist Haredi communities.
The name Neturei Karta means “Guardians of the City” in Aramaic, and is derived from a discussion in the Yerushalmi Talmud, tractate Hagiga:
Rebbi Yehuda the Nasi sent Rebbi Ḥiyya, Rebbi Assi, and Rebbi Immi to tour the towns of Israel to provide them with scribes and teachers. They came to one place where they found neither a scribe nor a teacher. They said to them, bring us the guardians of the city. They brought them the stewards of the town. The Rabbis told them, These are not the guardians of the city, they are the destroyers of the city. The people asked, who would be the guardians of the city? And they told them, the scribes and the teachers.
The Satmar Rebbe said about this generation of Neturei Karta: “Their actions are proof that when people act without the rule of Torah, they reach delusional places while transgressing every boundary.”
