By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com

This afternoon, Israeli President Mr. Isaac Herzog came to the home of HaGaon HaRav Rav Gershon Edelstein shlita to pay his respects and to attempt to demonstrate that the new Israeli administration looks to the Chareidi community as brothers in one nation.

Rav Edelstein shlita resides at yud zayin Rechov Raavad in Bnei Brak.

Present at the meeting were R’ Avrohom Rubinstein, the mayor of Bnei Brak; R’ Mordechai Paley the Rosh Yeshiva’s grandson, and MK R’ Moshe Gafni of Degel haTorah was also present.

The meeting was arranged when the President’s office called Rav Edelstein’s Gabbaim.  The president’s aids wish also for Mr. Herzog to go to Ponevech, but that did not work out.

Rav Edelstein resonded that the government must stop the attacks and the vilifications toward the Chareidi community.  They must also keep the Mesoros of Am Yisroel and ensure that they remain – specifically, kashrus, giur and the rabbanut.  Legislation initiated to allow marriages to be approved locally and not by the centralized Rabbanut must also stop.

The meeting took place at 2:30 PM and lasted fifteen minutes.

After the meeting, the mayor took President Herzog around Bnei Brak.