On Sunday afternoon, the Satmar Rebbe held his annual “Chuf Alef Kislev” event, attended by thousands upon thousands of Satmar Chassidim. The event was held at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn.
Chof Alef Kislev is the day Hagon HaRav Yoel Teitelbaum ZATZAL, the founder of Satmar Chassidus in America, escaped from the Nazis during the Holocaust in 1944.
The Satmar Rebbe, known as the Divrei Yoel, was among 1600-plus people who were transported out of Hungary by train thanks to the efforts of Rudolf Kastner, one of the leaders of Budapest’s Vaadat Ezra V’Hatzalah, who brokered a deal with Adolph Eichmann to let the passengers leave in exchange for a large sum of money, diamonds and gold.
While Eichmann reneged on the deal and had the train sent to Bergen Belsen, the train was finally released after four months of negotiations and the passengers finally obtained their freedom when they arrived in Switzerland.
Many dignitaries and elected officials have attended Chof Alef Kislev events over the years out of respect for the Rebbe and to show their support for chasidim and other frum communities.
[A MASSIVE EVENT WAS HELD ON MOTZEI SHABBOS IN BROOKLYN – BY THE SATMAR REBBE OF KIRYAS YOEL]
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4 Responses
Why the obsession with Satmar show tonight?
Not many care
According to the book Perfidy, which I heard Reb Avigdor Miller zt’l reccomends to read, to understand how the Zionists were such big reshaim, Adolf Kastner was a pretty bad character. Now I know that that’s debatable, and I think others may have considered him good, but it’s a good idea to allude to it somewhat. Because, the way you write it, it looks like he was a tzadik.
I’m sure they were makir tova for all those who helped save the Satmar Rav, including Rav Herzog, R’ Itche Meir Levin and R’ Moshe Parush of Agudah, R’ Yosef Yitzchok Rottenburg of the Mizrachi, the Vaad Hatzalah, Agudas Harabonim, and last but not least Dr. Kastner himself who selflessly insisted on saving a cross-section of Hungarian Jews, even those who hated what he stood for (something which other rescuers were not able to do וד”ל).
…elle sh’bkol dor v’dor omdim alainu l’chalosainu.