With about four months until municipal elections, the chareidi community is yet to announce its candidate in the Jerusalem mayoral race.

While Minister Ze’ev Elkin promotes himself as the Likud candidate, the party’s Jerusalem branch is divided and has already challenged Elkin’s claim to be the official party candidate. Elkin has asked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to publicly endorse him, but this is yet to occur. The incumbent, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has however come out in support of Elkin.

Another major candidate is Moshe Leon, who is also trying to obtain PM Netanyahu’s endorsement, or at the very least, Netanyahu refraining from endorsing Elkin.

Regarding the chareidi tzibur, the situation in he Jerusalem race is complicated. With some 100,000 eligible chareidi voters in the city, the backing of the sector is relevant in order to score a victory in the mayoral race.

While many names have been dropped regarding the race, the candidates who seem to have a realistic chance in the race include Elkin and Leon, as well as Ofir Berkowitz (Hisorarus), Yossi Deutsch (Yahadut Hatorah) and Rachel Azariya, the Kulanu party MK who abandoned her seat in the Jerusalem City Council to enter Knesset.

The division in the chareidi camp in the last elections have opened the door to Barkat, as well as his reelection to a second term. Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Yossi Deutsch is aware without official chareidi backing, he will not run in the race. While he has signaled a desire to run as the chareidi candidate, he has not received official backing from either the litvish or chassidish camps. Both Elkin and Leon have been visiting different rebbes and rabbonim, each working hard to earn the chareidi backing they seek.

Both Leon and Elkin are Shomer Shabbos, and it remains to be seen who the chareidi tzibur will endorse, or alternatively, run with a chareidi candidate such as Deutsch.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)