Former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind has sharply criticized the Satmar Rebbe, Rav Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, accusing him of endangering the Jewish community by condemning those who speak out against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Hikind said he believes the Rebbe’s remarks were driven by political considerations rather than purely l’sheim Shamayim motives.

“I wish I could believe that it was lishmah, that it was sincere, that it was all about Torah and it was all about God,” Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, told JNS. “But I don’t believe that for one second.”

Hikind said he was stunned when he first read the Rebbe’s comments.

“I was flabbergasted, shocked and had to take a second look at the statement from Satmar, because I really couldn’t believe it,” Hikind told JNS. “They’ve done a lot of radical crazy stuff, but this goes beyond the pale.”

The controversy stems from remarks delivered Sunday by Rav Zalman Leib during his annual address marking the 47th yahrtzeit of the Satmar Rov, Rav Yoel Teitelbaum. According to Hikind, those comments place New York’s Jewish community at greater risk.

“We know that the police department has itself talked about the incitement that’s going on,” he told JNS. “We know that the Justice Department is looking into it. Everyone has been calling on the mayor to tone down his rhetoric, and what the Satmar Rebbe said this week undermines the Jewish people and endangers the Jewish people in New York.”

Rav Zalman Leib told his chassidim that publicly attacking Mamdani violates the Torah’s approach to Jewish life in golus.

“Recently, we have witnessed a terrible provocation against the nations by heimishe Yidden,” by Jews, “through the incitement against the mayor of New York City,” the Rav said.

“We must remember that we are in exile,” he reportedly said. “The novi Yirmiyahu instructed the Jewish people: ‘Seek the peace of the city to which I have exiled you, and pray to God on its behalf.’”

“An observant Jew must follow the Torah’s path and accept the decree of exile,” he added.

The Satmar Rebbe also argued that labeling Mamdani an antisemite is a mistake.

Mamdani has publicly said that Israel should not exist as a Jewish state and campaigned on arresting Israel’s prime minister should he visit New York. His spokeswoman has also stated that shuls violate international law when they host pro-Israel events.

“To denounce the mayor and brand him an antisemite constitutes a true provocation against the nations,” the Satmar Rebbe reportedly said. “As though the provocation against the nations taking place in Eretz Yisroel,” in Israel, “were not enough, they are now bringing it here to the United States as well.”

Hikind said he believes there may be political calculations behind the Satmar leadership’s position.

“I can’t tell you how many programs they have, but I guarantee you eventually we’re going to find out that they are benefiting from this rhetoric,” he told JNS.

“Instead of protecting the Jewish community, they are protecting Mamdani,” he said. “Mamdani is thrilled with these comments coming out of Satmar and patting them on the back. There are ‘good Jews and bad Jews,’ and now Satmar are the ‘good’ Jews.”

He went even further, arguing that Satmar has aligned itself with those who supported Mamdani politically.

Satmar is “in bed with the radical Jews, the 35% who voted for Mamdani” and who “undermine the Jewish people,” Hikind told JNS. “They’re in bed with those people. They’re on the same page.”

David Myers, professor of Jewish history at UCLA, told JNS that Satmar’s position reflects two longstanding ideological principles that distinguish it from much of the Orthodox community.

According to Myers, Satmar’s anti-Zionist outlook is rooted in its belief that Jews should not hasten the arrival of Moshiach through political action, while its understanding of dina d’malchusa dina requires Jews in golus to respect and obey the governing authorities.

He added that Satmar has also historically maintained a pragmatic approach toward secular government.

“We must add one other key feature of Satmar political behavior: a transactional pragmatism that has always enabled Satmar leaders to engage with and accommodate to secular political leaders in exchange for tangible benefits,” Myers told JNS.

Myers noted that the anniversary of Rav Yoel Teitelbaum’s passing is one of the movement’s most significant annual events, together with the anniversary of his liberation from Bergen-Belsen.

“It is certainly an opportunity to reaffirm Rav Yoelish’s central principles, but the swirling debates around Mayor Mamdani’s views also prompted Rav Zalman Leib to weigh in with his own, decidedly Satmar perspective,” the scholar said.

“Both as a matter of submission to the sovereign and as a reflection of pragmatic accommodation, it is important to honor the city’s leading official,” he said.

While acknowledging Satmar’s anti-Zionist views, Myers said that alone does not fully explain the Rebbe’s comments.

“The fact that they share an anti-Zionist sensibility is interesting but not, ultimately, dispositive, in my view,” Myers told JNS.

“Rav Zalman Leib’s remarks are a reminder that Orthodoxy is hardly a monolithic phenomenon and that there are very sharp differences between competing groups,” he said. “It should serve as a further admonition against those who would ascribe to Jews a single political view or sensibility.”

“Satmar has, for years and years, built up a way of approaching things in which they prefer to try to make deals and try to protect what they can with the ruling authorities,” said Moshe Krakowski, a professor at Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School.

Krakowski also argued that Satmar today is not as aggressively anti-Zionist as it once was.

He described the movement as operating more in a “non-Zionist slash anti-Zionist mode.”

That distinction, he said, makes it easier for Satmar to separate criticism of Israel from attitudes toward Jews.

“If they felt closer to Israel and to the State of Israel, then you could imagine that that stance might be a little bit more difficult,” he told JNS. “It wouldn’t make it impossible, but it certainly doesn’t hurt that they are non-Zionist.”

Hikind insisted that Jews have an obligation to defend themselves in the face of rising antisemitism.

The elder Rav Teitelbaum, he said, “never would have done this,” especially at a time when antisemitism is increasing across New York City.

“I know we’re in exile. I know. I get it,” he told JNS. “But that doesn’t mean that Jews should not defend themselves or that Jews should not protect their communities.”

“The Jewish community is under attack,” Hikind said. “There is such fear. People talk about whether there’s a future in New York and a future in America because of what’s going on, and what does the Satmar Rebbe do on this very important anniversary of the old Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Teitelbaum—who never would have done this, never—they attack those who stand up and speak out.”

“That’s what they’re doing?” Hikind told JNS. “In the name of God? Shame, shame, shame.”

{Matzav.com}