A remarkable and historic moment unfolded at the White House on Thursday, as the two Satmar Rebbes, HaRav Aharon Teitelbaum and HaRav Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, spoke face-to-face and shook hands for the first time in decades during their meeting with President Donald Trump.

The extraordinary interaction occurred as the two Rebbes were among a group of leading Chassidish Rebbes and Rabbanim invited to meet with Trump at the White House.

During the gathering, the two Satmar Rebbes exchanged greetings and shook hands, a moment of achdus that immediately reverberated throughout the Satmar community and the broader Chareidi world.

Rav Aharon also wished his brother Mazel Tov on the engagement of his grandson, which had taken place just a day earlier.

The interaction even prompted a memorable exchange with President Trump.

Seeing the two Satmar Rebbes together, Trump reportedly asked them, “Are you twins?”

The Rebbes responded that they were not twins, but brothers.

The handshake and face-to-face conversation were particularly significant given the longstanding division within Satmar. The two brothers have led separate Satmar kehillos for decades, and direct contact between them has been extraordinarily rare.

There have, however, been significant signs in recent years that relations between the two sides have begun to thaw.

In April 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rav Zalman Leib called Rav Aharon to discuss the critical condition of their brother, the Zenta Rov, HaRav Lipa Teitelbaum, who was hospitalized with COVID-19. Rav Zalman Leib also inquired about the condition of Rav Aharon’s Rebbetzin, who was hospitalized at the time, and the brothers exchanged Gut Yom Tov wishes. It was a rare direct conversation between the brothers following the Satmar split.

The warming became increasingly visible this year through unprecedented cooperation surrounding the yerusha of their father, the Beirach Moshe ZT”L. After nearly two decades in which the division of priceless family heirlooms remained unresolved, representatives of both sides worked together to finally settle the matter.

Earlier this year, both Rebbes and other members of the family joined in a historic effort to recover and divide the Beirach Moshe’s seforim, kisvei yad and treasured cheftzei kodesh. In May, a formal goral was held to divide priceless portions of the yerusha among the families, and just last week another historic lottery was held to distribute the Beirach Moshe’s valuable silver heirlooms among his seven children.

Those developments were widely viewed within Satmar as significant signs of a gradual thaw after years of deep division.

Thursday’s scene at the White House, however, went dramatically further: the two Rebbes stood together, exchanged greetings and shook hands in person, with the President of the United States standing nearby.

While the encounter was brief, the image of the two Satmar Rebbes speaking and shaking hands inside the White House represented an extraordinary moment of achdus and another potentially significant milestone in the slowly warming relationship between the two sides.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)