Satmar Business Expo Draws 5,000 Participants, Showcases Goods and Services of Brethren to one Another

By: Yitzy Fried  

The Vayoel Moshe of Satmar came to America to transplant a shattered world. He put forth a hashkafah for his chassidim for every area of life—a world outlook that tens of thousands of Satmar chassidim follow ardently to this day. A chief tenet of the Rebbe’s was the holiness of Yiddishe gelt, the great good that could be accomplished with it, and the preciousness of providing parnassah to our fellow Yid. 

This teaching was on display at the historic “Satmar Business Expo” on Wednesday which drew more than 5,000 people from the community to some 300 spectacularly-designed booths and riveting business seminars at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center.  

The expo was an initiative of the leadership of Khal Yetev Lev Satmar, led by R’ Shaul Perlstein, R’ Avrohom Ber Yakobovitch, and R’ Joel Braver. 

Yoily Fried of FriedCo Media coordinated the event and its myriads of details. He recalls the early planning stages for this event and the distinctly Satmar approach that the planners took. 

“The Satmar kehillah is, bli ayin harah tremendous, and growing,” he explains.  “Sometimes, you can be sitting next to your neighbor in Shul, completely oblivious to what kind of business he is engaged in, and the mutual benefit you can each have from doing business together.

“The goal of this business was to allow businesses in our kehillah to showcase what they do to their very own friends, neighbors, and fellow Satmar chassidim.” 

While organizers started out planning for around one hundred booths, it quickly became clear that this would be a massive expo of more than three hundred. 

Thousands of people came through the expo center throughout the day—a vast many walking away with solid results. 

Rav Shmiel Teitelbaum shlit”a, the gabbai of the Satmar Rebbe, attended the event as an emissary of the Rebbe. He approached every single, inquiring about what they do, and delivered birchas hakodesh from the Rebbe. 

“The Roshei Kehilla were thrilled,” Fried reports. “Reb Berl Yakobovitch told me of the scores of people who came to thank him for the solid leads they took away at the expo itself, and the business that they anticipate in the coming year from their fellow Yidden.” 

“The event had a true Satmar feel,” says Fried, a proud Satmar chossid himself. 

“We had one conference room designated as a shul, where we had six minyonim for shachris, and the same for Mincha and maariv. There was coffee and refreshments throughout the day, as well as three meals served. At the same time, the booths were spectacular in presentation and professionalism, and the seminars in the adjoining conference room were given by professionals at the top of their field,” he said. 

“This is what the Rebbe taught us: to go about making a good parnassah to support our families—with zero compromise to a single aspect of Yiddishkeit, and with ahavas Yisroel as a chief priority. I think this phenomenal expo would have made him proud.”