With polls showing Yahadut Hatorah may increase to eight or nine seats in the upcoming Knesset elections, Degel Hatorah leaders have selected who is next on the lineup for the rotation deal with Agudas Yisrael stipulates the next seat goes to the litvish faction. Yahadut Hatorah currently has seven seats but all polls show it will climb to eight seats, with some showing the possibility of a ninth seat. YWN-ISRAEL reported that the short list included Yaakov Gutterman, Yitzchak Reich, Eliezer Sorotzkin and Menachem Shapira.
Tonight, Maran Hagon HaRav Aharon Leib Shteinman chose Rav Eliezer Sorotzkin, the director of Lev L’Achim in Israel to fill the fourth slot.
This of course precedes the announced establishment of the Maran party which will be headed by Eli Yishai. That party is likely to create new realities for a number of parties including Yahadut Hatorah and Shas.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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Rav Eliezer Sorotzkin is also Reb Abish Brodt’s stepbrother
(Reb Abish’s mother remarried R’Eliezer’s father after both of them first spouses predeceased them)
Yesterday, a delegation of senior members of Lev L’Achim visited Rav Shteinman’s residence in an attempt to prevent the appointment, stating that his departure from Lev L’Achim would be difficult for the organization to which he is so devoted.
But Rav Shteinman decided otherwise.