Sunday March 10 7:12 PM ET

Fistfights on Rodney Street

By GIMPEL the SHISTER, HasidicNews.com Writer

Williamsburg (HN) -- The sabbath isn't so restful at Congregation Yetev Lev D'Satmar in Williamsburg lately. In fact, all hell is breaking loose inside the Hasidic house of worship. Brawls more likely in a saloon than a synagogue have erupted inside the temple, where congregants are split over their future leadership.

The feud has gotten so ugly that even a son of the grand rebbe - the Hasidic equivalent of the pope - is accused of kicking a man in the head during prayer services.

David Ekstein, 59, a leader of one of two warring factions, told a judge he was loudly ordered to leave the synagogue during Saturday night services last November by Lipa Teitelbaum, one of the grand rebbe's sons.

Men jumped on the table in front of Ekstein, shouting " mussar " (informer), and a melee ensued, according to court papers. "They start screaming that I should go out, and then I got a kick in the face by Lipa Teitelbaum, actually my eyes," Ekstein testified recently. A photo said to be taken afterward shows a bloody scrape across Ekstein's forehead. But he didn't file a police report or go to the hospital.

Lipa Teitelbaum, about 51 - a rabbi and head of the Satmar yeshivas - did not return calls. His secretary, Joseph Deutsch, called Ekstein's accusation "part of a big smear campaign." "To say a rabbi was kicking someone is such an outrageous lie it shouldn't have to be answered," Deutsch said.

The temple tussles stem from a feud between two of Teitelbaum's brothers who are vying to succeed their ailing father, Moses Teitelbaum, 88, as spiritual leader of the ultra-orthodox Satmar sect.

The battle pits the eldest son, Aaron, who heads a Satmar branch in upstate Kiryas Joel, against his younger brother, Zalman, who took over the Williamsburg synagogue in 1999. Ekstein, of Monroe, supports Aaron. Lipa sides with Zalman.

It wasn't the first time Lipa was accused of violence. A letter, obtained by The Post, from the temple's ousted former president says Lipa "beat up" a man during the Sukkot holiday last September.

Deutsch said the letter is phony and that Lipa "would never get involved in physical fighting."

Even so, fistfights, shouting matches and taunts - such as pulling off religious hats or shawls - are marring the sanctity of the Rodney Street synagogue, both sides admit.

The congregation hired 22 guards from Blackhawk Security to patrol the Sukkot services, but the company had to call the cops for help. "It was wild," said Blackhawk supervisor Peter Johnson. "There was a lot of shoving, pulling and pushing, then a lot more punching."

Cops have responded to a half-dozen 911 calls to the temple in the past three months. Congregants repeatedly told officers "they would handle the dispute internally," a police spokesman said.

A few days after Ekstein was allegedly assaulted, an ally, Jacob Brach, stormed the podium during prayer services at Rodney Street and blasted Zalman's side as "bandits, war mongrels and thugs" in Yiddish, according to court papers and a video of the ruckus.

The lights went out, shouting broke out, and a prayer book was flung. Some men screamed "Aaron Teitelbaum, yemach shemoi " - meaning he should be wiped from history - a curse used for the likes of Adolf Hitler.

Some families are seeking other places to pray.

"Such behavior is a disgrace to God's name," said Moses Schwarts, a Hasidic Jew who has stayed away. "This is no way to raise our children."