Satmar (Yiddish: סאַטמאַר; Hebrew: סאטמר) is a group in Hasidic Judaism founded in 1905 by Grand Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum (1887–1979), in the city of Szatmárnémeti (also called Szatmár in the 1890s), Hungary (now Satu Mare in Romania).

Satmar also sponsors and leads the Central Rabbinical Congress, which serves as an umbrella organization for other highly conservative, anti-Zionist, and mostly Hungarian-descended ultra-Orthodox communities.

[5] A year after his daughter's death in Jerusalem,[6] Teitelbaum chose to move to the United States, arriving in New York aboard the MS Vulcania on 26 September 1946.

His arrival in America allowed him to fully implement his views: The separation of religion and state enabled the Satmar dynasty, as well as numerous other Jewish groups, to establish independent communities, unlike the state-regulated structures in Central Europe.

[8] Teitelbaum's policy was to maintain complete independence by refusing to affiliate with, or receive financial aid from, any other Jewish group;[9] his Hasidim established a network of businesses that provided an economic base for the community's own social institutions.

[10] As part of his vision of complete isolation from the outside world, Teitelbaum encouraged his followers to make Yiddish their primary language, though many had previously used German or Hungarian, being immigrants from former Greater Hungary.

[11] The uniformity of Satmar in America made it easier to teach young people the language, unlike in Europe: George Kranzler noted already in 1961 that the children speak Yiddish much better than their parents.

After prolonged vacillations by the community board, his nephew Moshe, Chaim Tzvi's second son, was appointed as successor, despite Alte Feiga's severe objections.

[10]: 126–128  The great majority of Hasidim accepted the new leader, though a small fraction called Bnei Yoel, which was unofficially led by Feiga, opposed him.

At the time of Moshe Teitelbaum's death, sources within the sect estimated it had 119,000 members worldwide, making it the world's largest Hasidic group.

Unlike the two brothers, Halberstam does not lay claim to the entire sect, though he conducts himself in the manner of a Hasidic Rebbe, accepting kvitel and holding tish.

Another son, Lipa Teitelbaum, established his own congregation and calls himself Zenter Rav, in homage to the town of Senta, Serbia, where his father served as rabbi before World War II.

There is a small community of Satmar gerim living in Guatemala, having rejected the Lev Tahor cult which initially converted the group before being expelled from the country.

Faced with rapid acculturation and a decline in religious observance, Lichtenstein preached utter rejection of modernity, widely applying the words of his teacher, Moses Sofer: "All that is new is forbidden by the Torah."

To reinforce his opposition to secular studies and the use of a vernacular, Schlesinger ventured outside the realm of strict halakha (Jewish law) and based his rulings on the non-legalistic Aggadah.

The ultra-Orthodox believed that the main threat did not come from liberal Jewish Neologs, who advocated religious reform, but from the moderate traditionalists; they directed their attacks chiefly against the modern Orthodox Azriel Hildesheimer.

[20] Lichtenstein's successors were no less rigid; the leading authority of Hungarian extremists in the Interwar period, Chaim Elazar Spira of Mukačevo, regarded the Polish/German ultra-Orthodox Agudath Israel as a demonic force, as much as both the religious and secular streams of Zionism.

While Agudah opposed Zionism for seeing it as anti-religious, Spira viewed their plan for establishing an independent state before the arrival of the Messiah as "forcing the end", trying to bring Redemption before God prescribed it.

In addition, he was an avowed anti-modernist: He sharply denounced Avraham Mordechai Alter, Rebbe of Ger, for introducing secular studies and allowing girls to attend school, and criticized modern medicine, believing the treatments recorded in the Talmud to be superior.

Teitelbaum argued that the first two are binding and eternal, and that their intent was to keep the people in divinely decreed exile until they would all fully repent their sins and earn a solely miraculous salvation, without human interference.

His thesis was also meant to refute contrary pro-Zionist religious arguments, whether that the aggadic source of the Oaths made them non-binding, or that they were no longer valid, especially after the Gentiles "oppressed Israel too much" in the Holocaust.

Based on his arguments, Teitelbaum stated that Zionism was a severe heresy and a rebellion against God, and that its pursuit brought about the Holocaust as a divine punishment; the continued existence of Israel was a major sin in itself, and would unavoidably lead to further retribution, as well as to the delaying of redemption.

[22]: 63–66 [19]: 168–180 [23] Teitelbaum's rabbinic authority and wealthy supporters in the United States made him the leader of the radical, anti-Zionist flank of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world.

The Israeli educational networks of Satmar and Edah HaChareidis, the latter also led by the Grand Rebbe, are fully independent and receive funding from abroad.

Satmar and allied elements refuse to receive social benefits or any other monetary aid from the Israeli state and criticize those non-Zionist Haredim who do.

In 1967, when the Western Wall and other holy places fell under Israel's control after the Six-Day War, Teitelbaum reinforced his views in the 1968 pamphlet Concerning Redeeming and Concerning Changing (Hebrew: עַל-הַגְּאֻלָּה וְעַל-הַתְּמוּרָה, romanized: a'l ha-ge'ulah v-a'l ha-tmurah; Ruth 4:7), arguing the war was no miracle, as opposed to statements by Menachem Mendel Schneerson of Chabad and others, whom he condemned severely, and forbade prayer at the Wall or at the other occupied holy sites, as he believed it would grant legitimacy to Israel's rule.

[26] The Grand Rebbe also insisted that the stockings of women and girls be fully opaque, a norm accepted by other Hungarian Hasidic groups which revered him.

Written in Yiddish, the decree warns: It has lately become the new trend that girls and married women are pursuing degrees in special education [...] And so we'd like to let their parents know that it is against the Torah.

Bikur Cholim ("Visiting the sick"), established in 1957 by Teitelbaum's wife Alte Feiga, concerns itself with helping hospitalized Jews, regardless of affiliation.