In what many view as an action aimed at graining dati leumi support in the Jerusalem mayoral race, chareidi candidate for mayor in Jerusalem Yossi Deutsch visited and was mispallel at the Har HaZeisim kever of HaGaon HaRav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook ZT”L on his yahrzeit, 3 Elul.

“It’s a great privilege to be mispallel here,” Deutsch said. “Rav Kook was a guide to hundreds of thousands of Jews, religious and non-religious.

“Rabbi Kook was a thread connecting the sectors of the Jewish people in general and Jerusalem in particular,” he added.

The visit of the so-called “chareidi candidate” to his kever stands out against the background of the fact that Rav Kook is not mentioned in the chareidi community. His seforim are not in on the bookshelves of yeshivos in the chareidi world, nor are they quoted.

This may be because many chareidi Gedolim including the Chazon Ish and the Brisker Rov opposed his Zionist views, despite being acknowledged as a great talmid chacham. Rav Kook was also attacked by rabbonim in Hungary before the war, who took an extreme position against his hashkafa, and after WWII, the Satmar Rebbe disagreed with his views publicly.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)