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July 18, 2011
The Hungarian American Satmar Hasidic Jewish Community in New York Welcomes the Delegation of the Government of Hungary
The delegation of the Hungarian Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, led by State Secretary András Levente Gál, as well as Ambassador György Szapáry and Consul General Károly Dán visited the Hungarian American Satmar Hasidic Jewish community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York on Monday, July 18. The community of 70,000 people is led by Grand Rebbe Zalman Teitelbaum since 2006.
Satmar Hasidism is a Hasidic movement comprising mostly Hungarian and Romanian Hasidic Jewish Holocaust survivors and their descendants. The two largest Satmar communities are in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Kiryas Joel, New York. (There are also significant Satmar communities in Borough Park, Brooklyn and Monsey, New York. Smaller communities can be found in North American cities such as Los Angeles, Montreal and Toronto; European cities such as Antwerp, London and Manchester; Argentina; Australia and numerous cities and towns in Israel.)
The Hasidic movement was founded and led by the late Hungarian-born Grand Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum (1887-1979), who was the rabbi of Szatmárnémeti, Hungary (currently Satu Mare, Romania). The town’s name in German is Satmar, which was also used by the Yiddish-speaking population, Yiddish being then the common language of the local Jews. Yoel Teitelbaum founded the Hasidic school of the community in Williamsburg in 1947, which had enrolled 700 boys and 700 girls in 1959, continued to grow rapidly, and has more than 7,000 students today. The language of the school is exclusively Yiddish.
Satmar Hasidism is claimed to be one of the largest and most influential Hasidic movements in existence today, but formal demographic comparisons with other Hasidim are not available. It is believed to number between 130,000 and 200,000 adherents (including men, women and children), and is rapidly growing due to the extremely high birth rate of the group.
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