שרעקעדיג! הר' אהרן טייטעלבוים'ס טעראר היסטאריע 1990-2010

 
his vehicle was found splattered with paint in Kiryas Joel Monday morning.
The SUV is owned by Isaac Srugo, father of a Kiryas Joel woman who was married
March 3 in a ceremony opposed by leaders of the village's main congregation.
Photo provided by Joseph Waldman

Kiryas Joel weddings spur vandalism
 dissidents say Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum's rivals responsible
By Chris Mckenna

KIRYAS JOEL
 It took a few days, but the vandals finally got back at Isaac Srugo for marrying off his daughter last week in a ceremony that the Hasidic community's main congregation had not sanctioned

Srugo woke Monday morning to find the latest handiwork of the self-appointed marriage police: a gallon of white paint poured down the windshield of his SUV

Ever since dissident community members opened their first wedding hall just outside the village in January, the supporters of Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum — the leader of Kiryas Joel's main congregation — have waged an occasional campaign of harassment and vandalism against dissident leaders and relatives of the three couples who have wed so far

1). They cruised in trucks with mounted loudspeakers,
2). Made harassing phone calls and
3). Flipped over the car of a bride's brother, state police reported early in the conflict. 
4).Two 15-year-olds were charged with smashing a rabbi's window Later,
5). Vandals spray-painted denunciations of another rabbi inside a senior-citizen building on Forest Road where religious services are held.
6). And after they failed to derail the second dissident wedding
7). On Feb. 17, they poured sugar in the gas tank of the groom's brother's car,
8). They spray painted the school busses of Rabbi Zalmen Teitelbaum's school,
9). They filled the streets with flyers against the 3 Rabbis who officiated those weddings.  
The third wedding — officiated by Grand Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum, the brother and rival of Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum — was certain to agitate opponents even more. Srugo said they flooded his and family's phones with harassing phone calls and even harangued his 80-year-old father in Brooklyn
As he waited Tuesday for the-
11). Paint to be cleaned off his car and to hear the cost, Srugo said he had no regrets about the venue he chose for his fifth child's wedding
"We're not going to do it in the other place (by Aron's group)," said Srugo, a father of 15 who has 10 more weddings to go

cmckenna@th-record.com