Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum

Second from right is Grand Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum by his uncle's grave

KIRYAS JOEL – Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, the founder of the Satmar Hassidic Village of Kiryas Joel died 29 years ago at age 92 and Wednesday, an estimated 35,000 Satmar Jews converged on the Orange County community to pay their respects to the man who founded the Satmar sect.

Rabbi Teitelbaum, who was originally from Hungary, was deported to Auschwitz during the Nazi era and in 1946 settled with his followers in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

In the 1970s, he looked to expand and chose Monroe where the land for the new village was purchased in 1977. Fourteen Satmar families settled there then and by 2006, there were over 3,000.

Moses Witriol, the director of Kiryas Joel’s Public Safety Department, met Rabbi Teitelbaum when he was a small child. He said the rabbi was an international religious leader.

“He was the founder of the Satmar movement, which is all over, not only in the Village of Kiryas Joel, which is Brooklyn, Monsey, Montreal, Antwerp, England, Israel; he was the chief rabbi of Israel as well,” said Witriol.

When he died in 1979, Rabbi Teitelbaum was the first person to be buried in the village’s cemetery and on Wednesday, an estimated 30,000 followers were expected to pay their respects at his grave.

Another religious village, New Square, is located in Rockland County.