Last month, Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, who leads a major faction of the Satmar Hasidic sect, pledged his community’s support for Republican Congressmember Marc Molinaro during a recent visit by Molinaro to Teitelbaum’s home in Sullivan County.

According to Der Yid, a Yiddish-language Satmar newspaper, part of the intention of the visit was for the rabbi to thank Molinaro for securing federal aid to a sewage treatment plant in Bloomingburg, a village in his district where there is a large Zalmanite community, and then during the visit the rabbi “blessed him to continue [in his role] by winning re-election.”

Molinaro recently secured $2.25 million in aid for the sewage treatment plant, according to the Sullivan County Democrat. The aid is expected to help address problems with wastewater management, as News 12 reports millions of gallons of sewage have been dumped into a local stream.

It’s unclear how many Hasidim live in the district, but statistics hinting at the number of Yiddish speakers in an area can help. According to Census data from 2022, in the village of Bloomingburg alone, an estimated 492 residents — most of whom were children — spoke an Indo-European language at home other than English or Spanish — presumably Yiddish. Many Hasidim also live year-round in other parts of the district, including in the recently established village of Ateres, which is home to more than 800 Vizhnitz Hasidim.

"It has been an honor to have an open dialogue with the Satmar community, and I was privileged to visit the home of Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum,” Molinaro said in a statement to Shtetl. “We committed to having more conversations and to continue partnering and supporting each other."

In the upcoming election, Molinaro faces Democrat Josh Riley, whom Molinaro defeated in 2022 by almost 5,000 votes. The district covers a section of upstate New York stretching from Ithaca to the Catskills.

In addition to wastewater management, Satmar activists present at the visit also discussed protecting Jewish cemeteries in Europe, concerns about antisemitism, and their opposition to recent efforts by New York State to enforce secular education rules in Haredi schools statewide.

Molinaro’s staff told Shtetl that the congressman believes “the state is too heavy handed and yeshivas should have the freedom to teach their faith.” He cited a letter he and other members of New York’s Republican congressional delegation sent to Governor Kathy Hochul in 2023, in which they urged her to let yeshivas “teach their students on their own terms.”

Haredi leaders usually announce their endorsements close to Election Day to make sure they are betting on a winning candidate. Pledging his community’s support for a Republican in a purple district poses Teitelbaum some risk. With the elections less than three months away and the new presidential candidate giving Democrats a major morale boost all down the ticket, control of the Congress and White House hangs in the balance. If, despite his support, Republicans lose the House, while Democrats continue to run the state, Teitelbaum’s influence could take a hit.

The Satmar community has two main factions: the Zalmanite faction, which has a long-established base in South Williamsburg, and the Aronite faction, named for Zalman Leib’s brother, based in Kiryas Joel. Over the past decade, fast population growth and exorbitant housing costs led some Zalmanite community members to establish a Hasidic community in Bloomingburg.

In 2014, Shalom Lamm, a real estate developer bribed Haredim who did not live in Bloomingburg to go and vote there in order to elect a candidate who supported large development for Haredi residents. That developer was later convicted, and Geoffrey Berman, a former US attorney for the Southern District of New York, called the scheme “the biggest federal voter fraud case in the modern era.”

The Riley campaign did not respond to emails from Shtetl. Rabbi David Niederman, leader of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, who was present at the meeting, did not respond to questions from Shtetl either.