Brooklyn Philanthropist Makes Waves with Impassioned Address on Satmar Rebbe’s Shitah—Pledges that Satmar Will Absorb Anyone who Joins

YS GOLD 

Satmar billionaire Yoeli Landau chose the yohrtzeit of his revered and beloved Rebbe, the Divrei Yoel of Satmar, to jet into Eretz Yisroel for a whirlwind tour of strengthening the mosdos haTorah which choose not to partake in funds from the Zionist State. 

Going from one event to the other, he constantly emphasized the pivotal and fateful moment that Charedi Jewry in Eretz Yisroel finds itself in—when so many are coming to terms with the truth of the shitah of the Satmar Rebbe who warned from the beginning that associating with the Medinah would end in catastrophe. 

After inaugurating a $25 million girl’s school for the Satmar community in Yerushalayim, a project that he largely funded and is named “Landau Square,” he delivered a pointed and fiery address during which he praised the hundreds of leaders of institutions which operate al taharas hakodesh. 

In it, he recalled a moment, seventy-three years earlier, when the Satmar Rebbe stood at that exact place, having arrived in Eretz Yisroel on a similar mission of bolstering and strengthening the mosdos of Eretz Yisroel who resist the temptation to take money from the State. 

On that day in 1952, the Rebbe stood in Yerushalayim with $10,000—an exorbitant sum in those days—and generously distributed it to Torah institutions who pledged not to partake in the flow of funds from the Medinah. But the Rebbe wasn’t done… he returned home $10,000 in debt—having borrowed the remainder. 

Seventy-three years later, his loyal and devoted follower who’s doing his humble part to perpetuate the derech and the shitah of his Rebbe pledged the following: “Satmar is prepared to absorb and support every mossad which pledged to wean off the government dole… to operate al taharas hakodesh.” 

“When we look around at the leaders of these mosdos, it brings to mind the moment that the Rebbe, zy”a, stood at this very place in 1952, alone, when the entire world laughed at him, and impure money flowed like water… but “echad haya Avraham,” Avraham was one and alone in declaring the truth: ‘don’t partake from these impure monies, for it will only bring destruction…’ Unfortunately, many communities did not heed his call, he intoned, referring to the drastic cuts that the government has recently made, in addition to other catastrophic decrees involving bnei haYeshiva. 

“Today, we pledge to absorb any mossad that wishes to come on board, and join the ranks of adherents to the Satmar shitah,” he promised. 

Clips of his pointed address immediately made the round, and they were covered heavily in the Israeli news media, and a heated debate ensued during which Charedi MK’s and analysts all but admitted that the Satmar Rebbe was correct all along. 

Aryeh Ehrlich, a Mishpachah columnist, told I24 News: “The Charedi community has arrived at a crossroads—and it is very possible that at this moment, practically speaking, the Satmar shitah is most coherent and true.”