Maramaros, Hungary—The Cradle of Extreme Orthodoxy

Extreme Orthodoxy¹ is a separatist, anti-modernistic, and anti-Zionist Jewish religious ideology adopted by a number of haredi groups. Extreme Orthodox groups affiliate with two major organizations: Ha-Edah Ha-Haredit (The Orthodox Community) in Israel and the Central Rabbinical Congress (also known as Hit’achdut Ha-Rabbanim) in the U.S. Each of these organizations consists of ten–twenty groups, most of them “Hungarian” hasidic courts such as Satmar, Spinka, Munkacs, Dushinsky, and Toldoth Aharon, to name but a few. Other groups, usually known as Neturei Karta, have such separatist ideologies that they eschew membership even in these extreme organizations.

Many scholars concur that one of the basic characteristics of Orthodoxy is conscious seclusion from the non-Orthodox world, creating a model of social behavior that the academic literature describes as a cultural enclave.² Thus, Extreme Orthodoxy, which disassociates itself not only from non-Orthodox society but also from mainstream Orthodoxy, may be characterized as an enclave within an enclave. Today, the main criterion that defines the “twice-removed” Extreme Orthodox enclave is its anti-Zionist stance. In the eyes of Extreme Orthodoxy, any organization, institution, or political party that acknowledges Israeli authority to any extent, either by accepting governmental or municipal funding or by cooperating with Israeli officials, is automatically considered a Zionist collaborator and therefore impure. As a result, Extreme Orthodoxy shuns the majority of haredi Jews, both in Israel and in the U.S., who support organizations such as Agudath Israel, which delegates political activists to the Israeli parliament.

The following sections of this article review how this extreme form of Orthodoxy was established in accordance with basic principles laid down by two Hungarian rabbis at the turn of the nineteenth century: Rabbi Moshe Sofer (1762–1839, author of the responsa collection Hatam Sofer and himself known by that title, as he will be referred to here) and Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum (1758–1841). Although Hatam Sofer is the more renowned of the two, it is Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum’s ideology that remains highly significant in the Satmar hasidic court, one of the strongest and most influential hasidic groups in the post-Holocaust era.³ The religious concepts, ideologies, and rulings of these two great sages, each followed by a thread of successors, inspired the foundation of Extreme Orthodoxy. Over a period of about 100 years, beginning in Maramaros in the 1860s, Extreme Orthodoxy evolved from an unorganized religious phenomenon into a well-organized established social movement.

Hungarian jews at the beginning of the ninetenth century

Joseph II (1741–1790), King of Hungary from 1780 to 1790, earned fame for his modern concepts in general and with respect to Jews in particular.⁴ His Tolerance Bill (Toleranzpatent) granted Jews many civil rights, inspiring them to adopt a more pro-Hungarian approach. Encouraging them to become more productive, he demanded the incorporation of general studies, including the study of the Hungarian language, into the traditional Jewish curriculum. He then introduced new regulations allowing Jews to join the public education system and to establish their own Jewish schools.⁵ These changes made Hungary a desirable destination for Jews and their number in that country quadrupled from about 20,000 in the 1790s to about 80,000 in the 1840s.⁶

A few years after new ideas of religious reform were introduced in Germany in the late eighteenth century, they began to infiltrate Hungary as well.⁷ In 1803, Rabbi Aharon Chorin (1766–1844), the chief rabbi of Arad,⁸ published his book Emek Ha-Shave. The book, which received rabbinical acceptance (Haskamot), argued that rabbis should amend the corpus of Jewish religious laws (Halacha) and adjust it to the time and the society in which they lived. Two years later, following constant pressure by more conservative rabbis, he publicly denounced this idea, but later returned to his original stance and eventually became one of the more radical reformists.⁹

From the end of the eighteenth century and the reforms introduced by King Joseph II, many Hungarian Jews adopted a modern lifestyle that included certain religious reforms. The reform movement in Hungary, termed...