He Shall Stand Before Kings:

Unprecedented Hishtadlus Meeting by the Satmar Rebbe shlit"a at Trump Tower in Manhattan. First-time decision to take up an invitation to advocate for assistance in the future regarding the chinuch decree in New York; the decrees in Eretz Yisroel; housing; shechita; and generally regarding establishing federal connections. Meeting with the son and policy adviser of President Trump is crowned with success after deep understanding in all areas.

In an unusual and historic step of "hishtadlus" for the benefit of the klal and the individual, and for all our Jewish brethren in the Diaspora and in Eretz Yisroel alike, a visit by the Satmar Rebbe shlit"a took place today at Trump Tower in Manhattan, where the Rebbe, at great personal effort, traveled down to hold a personal advocacy meeting to place very important Jewish interests on the agenda and policy plans of the former president and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The visit, which lasted an hour, was with the candidate's son, Mr. Eric Trump, who assists his father in accompanying the future administration's policies and transition team.

The plan for the visit began about 2 weeks ago, when an advocate close to the Trump campaign approached the Rebbe, Rabbi Yehuda Kaplan of North Miami, a prominent businessman in the state of Florida who in the past had a great deal of business contact with the Trump family, and who currently serves as the campaign's liaison to the Chareidi communities on various fronts.
Rabbi Kaplan requested of the Rebbe shlit"a, on behalf of the campaign, that they wish to set up a meeting to hear our needs, followed by a personal meeting with the candidate, in order to receive the endorsement of Satmar's bloc vote.
After lengthy discussions and consultations with askanim and political experts, the Rebbe shlit"a decided that at a time when the Chareidi community so needs protection from those who wish us ill, chas v'shalom, it is worthwhile not to let such an opportunity pass to advocate with the candidate, since he has already in the past shown that he carries out various difficult steps for the benefit of Jews in America in general and in particular.
After the visit was confirmed, it was set that the Rebbe shlit"a would undertake the historic precedent of hishtadlus for our Jewish brethren this Wednesday at 10 a.m., and personally travel to Trump Tower in Manhattan for a meeting.
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At the appointed minute the Rebbe entered the meeting with a very small entourage, as arranged in advance. Accompanying the Rebbe were the askan HaRav R' Gedalya Segal, the Kiryas Joel Village administrator, and the askan Rabbi R' Shlome Yosef Herskowitz of Williamsburg, who is a close friend of Rabbi Kaplan and was instrumental in the preparations for the hishtadlus.
At the start of the visit, when it was stated that the Rebbe comes here on behalf of tens of thousands of Satmar Jews from across New York and New Jersey, such as Williamsburg; Kiryas Joel; Boro Park; Monsey; Linden; Lakewood, etc., the Rebbe shlit"a personally expressed the deep hakaras hatov that the Chareidi public in New York has for the former president, for the many serious steps he took on our behalf during his previous presidency, and especially for helping to end the Covid lockdowns in a timely manner; the commutation of the sentences of R' Shalom Weiss and R' Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin; the religious freedom he strengthened, mainly with the new Supreme Court justices he appointed, who have already fought a great deal for the benefit of religion; the prison reform bill, and the subsequent release of R' Mordechai Yitzchak Samet; the rescue assistance the Satmar Monsey mosdos received when they struggled with lawsuits on behalf of the local Airmont government, until the federal US attorneys put an end to it; and more.
It was pointed out that our entire community indeed showed its hakaras hatov! The Village administrator took out documents and showed the figures indicating that when Trump ran for his first term, he received the votes of the Satmar areas in general and Kiryas Joel in particular from about 50% of the voters. Again, when he ran for reelection, when he received the endorsement of the community as hakaras hatov, as many as 90% of the votes went with a landslide vote for him, something that evoked great admiration and demonstrated how strongly our trait of hakaras hatov applies toward political officials, and that the public follows the endorsements of the community leaders.
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Then the conversation moved on to the future, as the Rebbe began speaking about the future, in which we hope that Trump as president will be able to continue helping us even more, b'ezras Hashem.
As an introduction, it was discussed that our vision here in America is as follows: Our Rebbe zt"l, the founder of our kehilla and savior of our community, came here after the Holocaust and began to replant here "authentic Yiddishkeit," exactly as our grandfathers lived in Europe before the Holocaust. In those times there were hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Jews spread across many cities and towns throughout Europe. This, with the same way of life, is what we transplanted here in the "kingdom of kindness," and when the number of Orthodox Jews in America reaches the number there was before the Holocaust in Europe, with the same authenticity, we will be close to success in our vision.
Therefore, the Rebbe presented our request, that the faithful officials and the entire government continue to help us reach our goal of building further generations and families on our noble path without disturbances, and with that the conversation moved on to the critical topic on everyone's agenda: chinuch.
The Rebbe said that he asks for only one thing: that "the parents" have a "choice" on the curriculum of their institutions. Not the government, but the parents, should make the choice of what the course of study should be. As R' Gedalya called it with the official slogan, "Parental Choice of Curriculum."
We want to live as Jews in America. The fact shows that without any government interference, we lacked nothing here (Baruch Hashem); our minds sharpen with Talmud, our young men are successful in business, our community has every kind of service the public needs both for religion and for business, we have a kosher and healthy economy that only needs to be helped to continue as it is, not to be hindered.
The opportunity was used here to point out that we Orthodox Jews here have nothing to do with the State of Israel. "Judaism is thousands of years old, and Israel is barely 75 years," the Rebbe said. Our interest is not Israeli politics, but specifically the peace and well-being of all Jews, and of our home, America. We look with great concern at how the State of Israel, with its secular government and secular court system, persecutes Orthodox Jews, and we ask that Trump make an effort that there be full tolerance for Chareidi Jews within the free State of Israel. Right now there are active decrees against religious Jews in Israel, and the reality is that "Orthodox Jews in America have more rights than Orthodox Jews in Eretz Yisroel," as the Rebbe mentioned, and we want to see a change.
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The clear and pure words were, Baruch Hashem, received with exceptional understanding, and then they moved on to discuss several other topics important to the public here in America, especially New York and New Jersey.
They spoke generally about the massive growth of the holy city of "Kiryas Joel," pointing out that, being in the real estate business, the Trump family knows what this means: that a place which 50 years ago was a desolate wilderness is today a city of about 8,000 families, soon 50,000 people bli ayin hara, and over 20,000 children, bli ayin hara.
Currently, as much as 500 new families are added each year through natural growth, bli ayin hara, figures that made an extraordinary impression, seeing that this is a flourishing growth that is so beautifully accompanied and of course demands so much.

There was a conversation about the efforts being invested so that there will be affordable housing, and a new idea was raised regarding "college Section 8." That is, since in our community people already marry, Baruch Hashem, from age 18 and up, while still in the middle of the college years, which means that there are thousands of young couples who are actually in the college age range but do not get a "dormitory" and instead pay rent for an apartment, it would be fitting for them to receive at least some kind of priority, or a special type, from the Section 8 program to help them pay for the roof over their heads.
Then they spoke about kosher shechita, and the Rebbe specially requested that an effort be made to cancel a certain difficult regulation that requires that the salt used to salt the meat must be dissolved before entering the drainage and sewer, something that could triple the prices of kosher meat in America.
They also spoke about the general void in the connection between Washington and the Chareidi Jews, since very often the White House appoints as Jewish liaisons those who do not understand at all the needs of the Orthodox community, not to mention those who are actually a liaison for the State of Israel lobbyists. It was pointed out that the Yiddish-speaking Orthodox community consists of tens of thousands of people, and it is important that Washington maintain a connection with us through liaisons who are connected with us, understand our way of life and our needs, and this is relevant for sincere Torah-true Jews in all areas separately.

The meeting ended after almost a full hour of a very understanding conversation, which apparently cast a strong light on our needs and brought great clarity and information in a manner never before achieved with a presidential office. It is everyone's hope that from the Rebbe's mesirus nefesh in undertaking this important trip, despite the busy times in which he stands, the desired results will indeed emerge and we will have open gates in the future for all our needs in general, and the mentioned topics in particular, and above all the difficult chinuch decree that the New York Education Department is in the middle of carrying out, with the aim of destroying, chas v'shalom, Jewish chinuch in America as it has been handed down from generation to generation. "And we, in the name of Hashem our G-d, shall call out, and in the name of Hashem we will act and succeed."
May the heart of the government be turned toward us for good.

▫️ Satmara Niyes 🌴 ▫️