page_title: Aaron Teitelbaum
section_title: Positions
hierarchical_section_title: Aaron Teitelbaum / Positions
caption_attribution_description: Ami magazine with Satmar Grand Rabbi Ahron Teitelbaum on cover
context_page_description: Aaron Teitelbaum is one of the two Grand Rebbes of Satmar, and the chief rabbi of the Satmar community in Kiryas Joel, New York.
context_section_description: In May 2012, Teitelbaum forbade his followers from possessing computers in their homes, unless the computers are strictly necessary for a business and have a content-control software program. He also ruled that his followers may not possess smartphones under any circumstances.
  In keeping with the traditional beliefs of Satmar, Teitelbaum is firmly opposed to Zionism. Teitelbaum is affiliated with the Jerusalem-based anti-Zionist Edah HaChareidis, particularly with the organization's vice president, Moishe Sternbuch.
  In April 2013, Teitelbaum denounced the proposed draft of Haredi men by the Israel Defense Forces as "a decree worse than the annihilation of the Jewish people".
  
  In June 2014, contemporaneous to the 2014 kidnapping and murder of Israeli teenagers, Teitelbaum blamed the parents of the dead teenagers for their murder, proclaiming: 
  "During the funerals, the parents eulogized their sons, but I think it would have been preferable if they had done tshuva [repented], if they had said viduy [confession] with tears, in the nusach [style] that is used on Yom Kippur, to repent for their decision to live and learn Torah in a place of barbaric murderers."
  The speech was broadcast on Kol Satmar, the Satmar news service. Teitelbaum was criticized for making such remarks about parents while they were mourning their children.
caption: Teitelbaum on the front page of Ami magazine, as part of a report on his activism
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