Jewish Agency Attacks Satmar Hasidim As Rebbe Arrives for Visit in Israel

The Jewish Agency for Israel launched a stinging attack on the Satmar Hasidim this week on the eve of the Satmar rebbe’s first visit to Israel in 11 years.

It is the latest in a recent exchange of angry charges between the Israeli government and the Satmar over the treatment of Yemenite immigrants.

“World Satmar Hasidism is anti-Zionist and works for the clear and declared goal of frustrating the immigration and sabotaging the absorption of Yemenite Jews in Israel,” said Yehiel Leket, acting chairman of the Jewish Agency, in a statement issued this week.

The group “does not hesitate to use any means to achieve this goal,” he said.

Satmar Rebbe Moshe Teitelbaum is known for his fervent anti-Zionism. But his visit comes amid allegations by veteran Yemenite immigrants that Satmar Hasidim have bribed recent Yemenite immigrants to leave Israel.

There also have been charges that Yemenite children in Satmar yeshivas in the United States have not been permitted to leave.

A spokesman for the rebbe in the United States was quoted this week in the Israeli press as rejecting the charges as shocking falsehoods.

But at the same time he was quoted as conceding that the Satmar community tries “as hard as we can to influence Yemenite Jews to stay in the U.S.”

The spokesman said Yemenite Jews have a better chance of remaining faithful to Jewish tradition in the United States than in the non-religious settlements they have been placed in over the years in Israel.

ACCUSES ‘AGENTS’ OF CREATING FABRICATION

He also accused “agents” of the Jewish Agency of creating the fabrication because they resent the Satmars’ interference and “their monopoly of the Yemenite Jews.”

Uri Gordon, head of the immigration and absorption department of the Jewish Agency, said in a statement that the agency has absorbed the immigrants with sensitivity to religious tradition. He said the children are educated in fervently Orthodox institutions.

Gordon charged the Satmars with using the Yemenites as a fund-raising tool.

Meanwhile, Leket said the rebbe’s expression in Israel of his anti-Zionism represents a “cynical and disgraceful exploitation of Israeli pluralism and democracy” and that he preferred that the visit not take place.

Tens of thousands of the rebbe’s followers greeted him upon his arrival Tuesday evening in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim district. He was scheduled to stay in Israel for two weeks.

Leket said agency representatives would boycott any visits by the rebbe to Yemenite absorption centers.

He also referred to the ongoing civil war in Yemen, saying, “Even this does not deter the Satmar Hasidim from mounting a ‘War of the Jews,’ aimed at persuading the Jews of Yemen not to immigrate to Israel.”

He said the Satmar activities may jeopardize continuing efforts to bring Yemenite Jews to Israel. Since the summer of 1992, 429 Yemenite Jews have come to Israel with the help of the Jewish Agency, according to an agency source.

Some 500 Jews remain in strife-ridden Yemen, but they are not directly threatened by the civil war, he said.