Tel Aviv District Court Justice Naveh Ben-Ohr was pleased that the sides reached an agreement regarding the leadership of Chinuch Atzmai without the court’s involvement. The case came before the court on Sunday, July 4, 2010.

The court had two petitions, one from Rabbi Avraham Lazerson who demanded to be appointed to the new leadership forum that created by Degel faction members in agreement with the Shlomei Emunim faction of R’ Meir Porush. Lazerson challenged the decision to oust him from Chinuch Atzmai’s leadership.

The second petition comes from a veteran leader, Rabbi Yitzchak Meir, challenging the formation of the new leadership body based on the decision of Gedolei Yisrael last year, meeting in Jerusalem’s Novotel Hotel. R’ Meir explained as the remaining original member, he alone has the right to disqualify the decision of that rabbinical forum last year. Baruch Hashem, on erev shabbos, an agreement was reached, avoiding yet additional involvement of the secular judicial system in chareidi chinuch – a most sensitive reality following the Emanuel Beis Yaakov affair.

As reported earlier, the new agreement provides a 14-man leadership council, providing Agudah and Degel with equal representation. The internal Agudah division as follows; three slots for Gur, one for Vishnitz, one for Slonim, two for Shlomei Emunim. The remaining seven slots are assigned to Degel.

Representing the parties in the court were Rav Lazerson, Mordechai Karelitz and Rav Aryeh Dvir as well as attorneys representing the Central Party, Yitzhak Meron and Udi Edelstein. The court agreed to the request, to permit the sides an additional six weeks to prepare a final agreement for the court’s approval, set to reappear on August 25th.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)