ShalomNewYork.com

Kiryas Joel — A chief rabbi of the Satmar Hasidim has decreed new laws to cut down on the increasingly extravagant cost of weddings among Hasidic Jews in the United States and throughout the world.Grand Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum issued his new laws last month in a recording accessed by phone by many of the 100,000 Satmars around the world. More than 40,000 calls came in, many of them broadcast inside synagogues in the United States, Europe and Israel.The guidelines, which regulate every aspect of the marriage process, from the arranged meetings of Satmar couples to the post-wedding celebrations, have an especially big impact for the Village of Kiryas Joel, the home of Teitelbaum’s greatest number of followers. recordonline.com