Who Will Lead Us?: The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America by Samuel C. Heilman

Author:Samuel C. Heilman [Heilman, Samuel C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Judaism, General, Social Science, Sociology of Religion
ISBN: 9780520277236
Google: yx54DgAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0520277236
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Published: 2017-06-06T00:00:00+00:00

FAILURE IN SIGHET AND SUCCESS IN KROLE

Part of Yoelish’s unhappiness in Krole came from the fact that the same year he arrived there his older brother suffered a massive stroke and died suddenly at the age of forty-six. Yoelish, who now had useful experience as a rabbi and was increasingly known in the Hasidic world, with ambitions to be a general leader, might have been his brother’s natural successor in Sighet.34 Only the accident of his younger birth and his father’s refusal to find him a station there had made him leave. But Yoelish’s selection as his brother’s successor would have left the latter’s widow (who ironically would herself die later in 1926) and her children out in the cold and without positions, to say nothing of leaving all of the administrative staff that his brother had assembled in Sighet also out of power. The weak personality of the late Sigheter Rebbe had allowed them all to accumulate power they did not want to give up. If the more assertive Yoelish took the crown now, he would surely eclipse them all and then perhaps retaliate for his effective exile from Sighet years before. Thus the new Rebbe of Sighet would be, not the surviving brother, but Haim Tzvi’s then rather uncharismatic and inexperienced fourteen-year-old son, Zalman Leib (1912–44). That this undistinguished, unmarried youngster was preferred to his uncle was evidence of what we have already seen in these pages: when it comes to succession, familial, social, economic, and political concerns trump almost all else.

Yoelish settled in Krole, confirmed in his desire to eclipse Sighet and its Hasidic stature. Seeking to find unity, the family betrothed Yoelish’s daughter, Rachel, to Zalman Leib (tragically she suddenly died in March of 1931).35 The marriage gave her father some additional influence over the new young rebbe (and, as he thought then, the possibility that his daughter might bear the future heir to the Sighet crown). Ironically, many years later, Moshe, Zalman Leib’s younger brother, would inherit both the Sighet and Satmar crowns—but that part of the story was unimaginable in 1926.

Dissatisfied with Krole, Yoelish campaigned for positions in a number of places he visited and also advised his nephew in Sighet, building a reputation that outshone that of his late older brother and his nephew, whose inherited charisma turned out to be limited at best. He also boosted his political power by networking, making him far more than a local leader in Krole and a larger target for his opponents.

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