Rabbonim of the dati leumi community met on Sunday evening in the home of Rabbi Eitan Eiseman to speak about who to back in the upcoming mayoral runoff race. They were unable to reach a unanimous decision as to which candidate to back in the runoff election on 5 Kislev, Ofer Berkowitz or Moshe Leon.
According to the chairwoman of Bayit Yehudi in Jerusalem, Chagit Moshe, in her opening remarks before the rabbonim, it all comes down to who will safeguard the character and integrity of the capital, and at present, no decision has been reached.
In the election, Bayit Yehudi and the Ichud Leumi faction both backed the Likud candidate in the race, Minister Ze’ev Elkin. Before announcing that they were backing Elkin, three polls were taken at the cost of NIS 100,000 towards determining who the dati leumi tzibur was going to back in the race.
According to a report appearing on the Srugim dati leumi website, talks between Moshe Leon and Chagit Moshe “blew up” as Leon felt the demands she made “were unreasonable and unattainable”. Those demands included her being appointed deputy mayor for five years, as well as the chair of the Finance and Education portfolios, and the appointment of a dati leumi chief rabbi.
Among the rabbonim who attended the meeting were some of the leaders of the dati leumi tzibur, including HaGaon HaRav Chaim Druckman Shlita, HaGaon HaRav Tzefanya Drori Shlita and HaGaon HaRav Yaakov Ariel Shlita.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
the dati leumi community does not believe in the papacy and is likely to view such endorsements as advice. the attending rabbis represent the more politically right of the DL community. those more centrist from tzohar or beit hillel who represent most DL in Yerushalayim were not there.
Pretty laughable. Who will maintain the character of Yerushalayim? Definitely the guy who goes to the movies on Shabbos, yup.
I guess it depends on what you mean by character.