Neville ChaimBerlin and Menachem Shmei,
““This is the true story.”
Yet there is seemingly no record of it. I’m not saying you’re in the wrong, but I’ve looked into this before and can’t find a reliable account.”
I had never heard of this story until this thread. I don’t know how to access police records, but I did find several contemporaneous records of the incident in print media. First, there was absolutely no justification for violence, so don’t misconstrue anything I write as support for what these attackers did. It does seem that Rabbi Korf was teaching a Satmar kid in a store, rather than a shiur to interested adults. Whether or not he was a hired tutor, or was warned, or whatever, there is no evidence. The issue according to these articles was clearly about an accusation of proselytizing, not anger due to Zionism. The articles all mention that there was feuding between the groups for years. I didn’t see anything about Rabbi Korf getting beaten, but a second younger Chabad Rabbi about a month later, R’ Mendel Wechter, was pulled into a van, also had his beard cut, and was thrown out of the van, requiring hospitalization with a broken ankle and neck lacerations.