At a meeting of the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah on Tuesday evening. HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein announced that Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisrael are running together in the next elections.

“We were zocheh to a wonderful thing, simcha gedola – achdus,” the Rosh Yeshivah said. “Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisrael are running together, it’s a very great thing, a great zechus.”

A dispute about chinuch that almost led to a split between Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisrael was resolved on Monday.

UTJ chairman Moshe Gafni said: “We’re running together because the problem of chinuch was solved and we’re adhering to the agreement that we formed previously. They’re receiving the first place on the list but we’re receiving the first position – that’s part of the agreement.”

“In the next years, we’ll need to redo things since the current agreement doesn’t exactly represent the current situation but right now we have critical issues to fight for – chinuch, Yahadus, giyus, Shabbos, kashrus, and the Jewish family.”

Earlier this week, HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein instructed Bnei Brak Mayor Avraham Rubinstein, who acts as the secretary of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, to summon the members of the Moetzes to a meeting on Tuesday evening at the Rosh Yeshivah’s home.

The meeting, the first since the petirah of HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, z’tl, took place two days before the deadline for the submission of the party lists to the Central Election Committee ahead of the next election.

HaGaon HaRav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi did not participate in the meeting as he flew to the US on Monday for a chizuk trip ahead of the Yamim Noraim.

The current members of the Moetzes are HaRav Ezrachi, HaGaon HaRav Meir Tzvi Bergman, HaGaon HaRav Baruch Dov Povarsky, HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, HaGaon HaRav Moshe Yehuda Schlesinger, HaGaon HaRav Dovid Cohen, HaGaon HaRav Shraga Shteinman, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Zilberstein, HaGaon HaRav Aryeh Levi, HaGaon HaRav Baruch Weisbecker, HaGaon HaRav Aviezer Piltz, HaGaon HaRav Tzvi Darbkin, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Hacker, HaGaon HaRav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook and HaGaon HaRav Eliezer Yehuda Finkel.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)