This video is from an episode of 60 Minutes. It provides context but also a sense of awareness that little has changed. In our view, the Satmar of Kiryas Joel are little more than a cult. Their strength comes not from the weapons of the cultists of Waco but from a political voting bloc. Their indoctrination comes not from Hollywood bigwigs but from pseudo rabbinical precepts and edicts.
We wonder what would happen to politics if the Church of Scientology did not have wealthy benefactors and a Hollywood presence. Would politicians pander to the chuch’s leaders similarly? Do they now?
A cult disguised by religion and a language it chooses to call its own is still a cult. When the cult’s rabbis choose violence to further their own personal agendas, in our view they are no better than Charles Manson. The difference is that Manson is in jail as are/were his followers.
LOSTMESSIAH 
Is that guy a sociopath?
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To the blogger and commenters alike, get a job; get a life. If you dislike the system, LEAVE! You will change nothing; save your energy and strength.
The blogmaster of this blog is full of hate and his motives are not positive in any sense. S/he’s just another self-hating lowlife muckraker seeking to destroy; not to build or rebuild.
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Are you referring the the system of FRAUD FROM THE GOVERNMENT or the system of CHILD MOLESTATION or the system of BURNING PEOPLE ALIVE WHO DISSENT or the system of WELFARE CHEATS or the system of PERVERTED PEEPING TOMS or the system of the OTISVILLE MINYAN or the system of THUGGERY or the system of BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION???????
Just not sure WHICH SYSTEM you are referring to? Please enlighten us! And yes we here are all filled with hate…HATRED OF THE SYSTEM SATMAR AND OTHERS HAVE DEVISED THAT BRINGS SHAME AND DESTRUCTION TO THE JEISH PEOPLE!!
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The only truth to that statement is that we will change nothing because once a gypsy peasant boorish thug, always one and that has been Satmar’s legacy for 200 years.
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Are you a Shitmar cult member? You certainly aren;t a Jew
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I am a Jew. Period.
The system in general is good. There are bad apples in every bunch. It is up to us to decide whether to keep or dump our bad apples. If you don’t like it, GET THE HELL OUT! If you are an outsider, mind your own business. Take care of the crap in your own backyard.
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Yafutzu, one bad apple can spoil an entire tree. A worm becomes an infestation. A fungus can destroy a whole grove of trees. If you can dismiss child molestation, sexual abuse, inadequate education, fraud, tax manipulations, harming the elderly then you are simply another bad apple. If you don’t like what you are reading, you may want to “GET THE HELL OUT”. This is our business. These are our children. And, well, most of us work and don’t collect food stamps or section 8 housing or other subsidies while our grand rebbe lives in the lap of luxury. We are trying to take care of the crap in our own backyard. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?
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Um, no. You and the rest of the “bad apples” are not subject only to the behest of the rest of the rotten apples. Rapists, fraudsters, cheats, liars, abusers, thieves, aggressors, vigilantes, terrorists, misogynists, lovers of the ho and the con (both noun and verb) don’t get to decide. The country from whom you leach and all of our countrymen whom you victimize get to decide. Read a book.
I really miss Jeff.
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Unfortunately, for Satmar, as long as Satmar continues to take TAX funds that OTHER PEOPLE pay into the system, it is the taxpayer’s right to mind Satmar’s business.
If it were all about being an insular community and nothing more (like some Amish who dont take welfare and all the trimmings to support themselves) you would be right.
heed your own advice:
“If you dislike the system, LEAVE! ”
the ‘system’ in this country forces people to pay taxes into the system but then gives those taxpayers the right to DEAMND that their ‘donations’ are not being misused or misdirected.
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They do inculcate their children with an intense hatred for Israel.
Before my mom split from my dad, who was in the cult, I was there and I remember my rebbe saying that the “Tziyonim” (Zionists), threw the Yiden into the ovens in Auschwitz… and If Zionism did not exist then the Nazis would not have come.. and similar hateful nonsense.
This is the fruit of that vine, unfortunately.
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Does anyone know what happened to the dissident guy? 21+ years later I’m wondering about him and his family. If he’d left frumkeit, I’d get it. But he was still frum in this piece and I can’t even imagine the revenge they’d take on him.
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Probably in jail for some fraud.
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Why would you call this a cult? A cult is a group that pledges fealty to one leader, gives most or all of their money to this leader, gives him all of their devotion and obedience to this leader, punishes those who depart from the leader’s designated path, and may consider this leader God’s representative on Earth.
Oh wait…………..
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Steal HUD money for a non-existent building to pay for the Satmar Rebbe’s swimming pool…NICE!
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SATMAR: the most corrupt, dishonest, unethical, fraudulent, perverted, immoral group of people on the face of the earth.
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