Public statements
When events demand a Torah response, we issue clear public statements — in English, Yiddish, and Hebrew — distributed to press and community.
Torah Jews/About
"Not in our name." This website exists so that what the Satmar Rebbe taught for fifty years is not drowned out by those who were never authorized to speak in the name of Torah Jewry.
i. First principles
We carry forward a voice that did not begin in 2003. It began in Sighet in 1887 — with a child named Yoel Teitelbaum, born into a dynasty that had already, for three generations, rejected the rising winds of political Zionism.
ii. The organization
Torah Jews was founded more than twenty years ago by Rabbi Moshe Dovid Katz, at the request and with the encouragement of the Satmar community, to serve as an organized voice articulating the Torah-based opposition to Zionism. The organization is also known as נטרונא (Natruna). From its inception, this mission reflected the longstanding vision of the Satmar Rebbe, who emphasized the necessity of a dedicated body to communicate clearly to the nations of the world that the political entity known as the State of Israel does not represent the Jewish people nor authentic Judaism.
Due to the community's principled caution regarding modern technology and media, this responsibility was entrusted to Torah Jews to carry out faithfully and responsibly on its behalf.
Today, Torah Jews is a robust international organization representing Orthodox Jewish communities across the United States, Europe, and the Holy Land. Its work is dedicated to explaining the fundamental incompatibility of Zionism with Judaism on theological, halachic, and moral grounds — and to clarifying that the Jewish people are defined by their covenant with God, not by land, race, or a state, and that Judaism is a faith, not a political or nationalist ideology.
Torah Jews is funded entirely through the support of its members and community-based fundraising initiatives. It primarily serves Yiddish-speaking communities through an established network of hotlines, public lectures, educational programming, news updates, and published works.
The organization has produced extensive scholarly literature opposing Zionism in Lashon Kodesh, Yiddish, and English, and holds endorsements from leading Rabbinical authorities across the Orthodox world, including both factions of Satmar, the Eidah HaChareidis, the Central Rabbinical Congress, and the Roshei Yeshivas of Brisk.
iii. Part I
Grand Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum (1887–1979) — known to his followers simply as the Rebbe, and to the world as the Satmar Rav — was the founder of the Satmar Hasidic dynasty and the most consequential opponent of political Zionism in the twentieth century. His entire life was a fight against it.
YTBorn to Rabbi Chananya Yom Tov Lipa Teitelbaum, Chief Rabbi of Sighet and a leader of Hungarian Orthodoxy. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all opposed the modern Zionist project from the moment it began. The position he would later articulate in Vayoel Moshe was not invented — it was inherited, studied, and then defended with unprecedented rigor.
He forbade any contact with Zionists — including the Religious Zionist party Mizrachi — and aligned with the Munkacser Rebbe against the compromise position of Agudat Israel. This was not a fringe opinion. It was the mainstream of Hungarian Orthodoxy. In 1934, after years of struggle, he took office as Chief Rabbi of Satmar (Satu Mare).
When Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, the Rebbe was caught attempting to flee to Romania and sent to the Klausenberg ghetto, then to Bergen-Belsen. He survived via the Kastner train to Switzerland. His community — his yeshiva, his Hasidim, his world — was annihilated. He lost everything a person can lose, and emerged with his position on Zionism not weakened but deepened.
He arrived in New York on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, 1946, aboard the Vulcania. He settled in Williamsburg with a small group of survivors and founded Congregation Yetev Lev. In 1951 he was appointed President of the anti-Zionist Eidah HaChareidis of Jerusalem. In 1955 he founded the Central Rabbinical Congress — which today still endorses this organization.
His magnum opus. Three treatises — on the Three Oaths, on settling the Land, on the Holy Tongue — that have been taught in yeshivas and study groups ever since. Excerpts are still distributed in synagogues worldwide every Shabbos. In 1967, he published Al HaGeulah V'Al HaTemurah, rejecting the theological claim that the Six-Day War was a sign of divine redemption.
He passed away on the 26th of Av, 5739. Over one hundred thousand Jews attended his funeral. The town of Kiryas Joel — "Town of Yoel" — in Monroe, New York, is named for him.
iv. In his own words
"Because of our many sins, in these past years we have suffered bitterly in ways that Israel has not suffered since it became a nation."Vayoel Moshe · Introduction · 1959
"The Zionists, with all their deeds, have led the Jewish people into the greatest catastrophe since the destruction of the Second Temple."— Satmar Rebbe, Vayoel Moshe
v. Part II
In 2003, more than two decades after the Rebbe's passing, the Satmar community asked Rabbi Moshe Dovid Katz to establish an organized body to carry the message to a world that now lived on radio, television, and eventually the internet — media the Rebbe himself had kept at a distance.
Torah Jews (Natruna) was founded for that purpose. We are not a political organization. We are not a protest movement. We are a Torah-based educational body whose only job is to make sure the world knows that the State of Israel does not speak for the Jewish people, and Zionism is not Judaism.
Torah Jews is not affiliated with Neturei Karta or any Neturei Karta-identified groups. We maintain one official X/Twitter account, @TorahJews. We are funded entirely by community members and readers — no government money, no political money.
When events demand a Torah response, we issue clear public statements — in English, Yiddish, and Hebrew — distributed to press and community.
We publish, translate, and distribute the writings of the gedolim on this question — from the Chofetz Chaim to the Satmar Rebbe to contemporary authorities.
Lectures, classes, and printed material for those inside and outside the community who want to understand what Torah Judaism actually teaches about Zionism.
Natruna — "Guardians" — is a network of Torah-observant Jews in Brooklyn, Monsey, Monroe, Jerusalem, Antwerp, London, and Montreal, united in the conviction that the silence of the religious world on Zionism has done profound damage to Torah Judaism's standing in the world.
We work under the guidance of our rabbinical leadership, including Rabbi Moshe Dovid Katz, who serves as our primary public voice.
✦ What we stand for
Israel shall not ascend to the Land as a wall — that is, collectively, by force of arms or political project.
Exile is a condition to be borne with humility — not the premise of a nationalist insurgency.
We represent Orthodox Jews from all backgrounds — Hasidic, Litvish, Sephardic — united in this fundamental Torah principle.
vi. On the record
vii. Who stands with us
Historical guidance
Living endorsements
YT"Because of our many sins, in these past years we have suffered bitterly in ways that Israel has not suffered since it became a nation."Vayoel Moshe · Introduction · 1959