To 30,000 Hasidim, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum. leader of Brooklyn's famed Williamsburg Hasidic community, is "king of all rabbis, holiest of all Jews, greatest benefactor of our generation." Last week, the aging (73), frail, militantly anti-Zionist rabbi was in the Holy Land, rousing new support for his private war against the state of Israel.
Arriving aboard Turkey's S.S. Istanbul (he refuses to travel on Israeli boats because the Jewish crews must work on the Sabbath), Teitelbaum was welcomed by a crowd of black-robed, bearded Jews, who had waited along Haifa's docks under a burning sun....