New York, USA - Lawyers claimed yesterday that the leader of Brooklyn's Satmar Hasids is kept "a prisoner" by his caretakers, in the latest saga of a holy war between the sect's leaders.
Steven Finkelstein, whose clients want the courts to appoint a guardian for 92-year-old Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, claim his handlers "sequestered the grand rebbe," not even allowing him to attend relatives' bar mitzvahs.
In 1999, the grand rebbe tapped his son Zalman to lead the Williamsburg congregation, over his elder son, Aaron.
The appointment was furiously contested and a legal battle for control of the congregation's board — which runs yeshivas and social services — was decided last year, leaving Zalman in charge.
Judge John Leventhal yesterday suggested that the point of the legal action was to undermine that earlier ruling.
"If this is about politics, take all the papers and thousands of hours and dollars spent on this and flush it down the toilet," he said.