Mazkir Returns to Williamsburg

By COLlive reporter

Rabbi Leibel Groner, who served as secretary to the Rebbe for over 40 years, does not have fond memories from the Chassidic (and now also hipster) neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY.

Back in 1977 he and other Lubavitchers were brutally beaten by Satmar chassidim in the name of their Rebbe’s opposition to Chabad’s welcoming approach to Jews, including the secular and Zionist.

Satmar, and the frum world in general which was at one time critical of Chabad activities, has evolved since then.

One indication of that was the meeting last week between Rabbi Groner and Rabbi Lipa Teitelbaum, the second son of the previous Satmar Rebbe R’ Moshe Teitelbaum (1914–2006), author of Berach Moshe.

Leader of the Berach Moshe of Zenta shul in Williamsburg, he is the brother of the two current Satmar Rebbes – R’ Aaron Teitelbaum of Kiryas Joel and R’ Zalman Leib Teitelbaum of Williamsburg.

The occasion was the Vort engagement party of the daughter of Satmar activist Rabbi Shlomo Abramovich, a prison chaplain who visits the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Otisville, NY.

Rabbi Groner came to thank Rabbi Abramovich for extending friendship to Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, the Lubavitcher chossid who managed the kosher meat plant in Iowa and harshly sentenced for bank fraud.

Also present at the party in the Bais Rochel hall was Rabbi Avrohom Richter, Chabad Shliach in Long Island and the Chaplain of the Otisville Federal Prison, as well as Crown Heights activists R’ Chanina Sperlin and R’ Eli Slavin.

Rabbi Groner was warmly greeted by Rabbi Teitelbaum and his nephew Rabbi Yaakov Ber Teitelbaum, leader of the small but affluent Sighet Synagogue of Boro Park and son of R’ Zalman Leib.

He was then invited to address the simcha and recited a sicha of the Rebbe and shared a story of the Rebbe pertaining to a chosson and Kallah. His words were well received among the crowd.