World News – UK – What is Der Blatt, the Hasidic newspaper that hid news of a massive super-spreader wedding?

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Most media organizations would take the opportunity to uncover a massive wedding in violation of public health measures during the pandemic. The New York Hasidic newspaper Der Blatt did the opposite: it hid the news so as not to betray the secular authorities.

The wedding of Yoel Teitelbaum, grandson of the Satmar Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, took place on November 11th. November at the Yetev Lev congregation in Williamsburg. 11 and visited by thousands. The ceremony outraged government officials, including New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio. The city fined the wedding guests with a fine of 15. $ 000.

The New York Post published an excerpt from coverage by Der Blatt, which in part reads: “Due to the ongoing situation with government restrictions, preparations have been made clandestinely and discreetly. All notices of upcoming celebrations were given verbally. Without written communications, without posters on the walls of the synagogue, without invitations by mail or even a report in any publication, including this newspaper. ”

Why a newspaper would take such a position shows the very different role that New York’s Hasidic Yiddish newspapers play than typical journalistic media.

The leaf and its rival The Yid serve more or less as official state organs for the rival Satmar Rebbes, the brothers Aaron and Zalman Teitelbaum. While most reports of events in Der Yid and Der Blatt, in which the Hasidic community is not involved, would not be out of place in any metropolis on a daily basis, reporting on internal Hasidic affairs strictly follows the positions of their respective Rebbes.

As with North Korean, Chinese or Cuban state media, the tone of coverage is generally understood to reflect the party line on hot button issues.

The original Satmar newspaper Der Yid (Yiddish for the Jew) was published in 1953 by a conservative modern Orthodox Yiddish writer, Dr. . Aaron Rosman who sold it to a group of journalists and business people who were loyal to Satmar Rebbe, Joel Teitelbaum.

Originally devoted almost entirely to religious news, the newspaper reported extensively on world events in the 1960s and 1970s to better compete with other Yiddish newspapers, including the Forward, whose Zionist leanings Satmar officials were suspicious of.

When the next Satmar Rebbe Moishe Teitelbaum’s health began to fail, rival factions of the Satmar movement joined forces around his sons Aaron and Zalman.

Zalman’s followers took control of Der Yid, while Aaron’s acolytes started a new newspaper, Der Blatt, in 2000. The name literally means « the page » but idiomatically refers to both a newspaper and a page of the Talmud.

Although both papers maintain a strict anti-Zionist stance and do not publish pictures of women or girls, they exist in a forked reality. On the pages of Der Yid, Zalman Teitelbaum is the legitimate Satmar Rebbe, while in Der Blatt Rebbe Aaron is responsible.

In a broader sense within the Satmar world, Zalman controls most of the schools, synagogues and yeshivas in Williamsburg, while Aaron’s stronghold is Kiryas Joel. Aaron also controls several rival synagogues in Williamsburg, including Yetev Lev, where the controversial wedding took place.

Despite the split, both newspapers are listed in most Hasidic groceries, cafes and bodegas, along with their more liberal rival Di Tzeitung (« The Newspaper »), who is owned by a Satmar Jew but not a party in the succession conflict.

Another major difference between the three articles is their relationship with the Internet. While Di Tzeitung has a website and Der Yid publishes a daily e-mail newsletter, Der Blatt does not yet have a website. The print run for all three weekly newspapers is tens of thousands, although exact numbers are controversial.

The recent brouhaha on Der Blatt’s wedding coverage isn’t the first time Hasidic media practices have been criticized by mainstream media.

Di Tzeitung had his own 15-minute shame in May 2011 when she removed then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from a cover photo of government officials in the Situation Room watching the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. While some media outlets have misinterpreted this as being slightly anti-Clinton, the newspaper’s owner, Abraham Friedman, is known as a Clinton fan and his newspaper generally supported the Obama administration. During the controversy, the newspaper noted that while Clinton “served with great honors,” the publication of photos of women “does not conform to our religious values. ”

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New York, Andrew Cuomo, Hasidic Judaism, Bill de Blasio, Brooklyn