The secretary of the Degel Hatorah Moetzas Gedolei HaTorah, Avraham Rubinstein, on Wednesday, 24 Tishrei, sent a harshly worded letter to his chassidish counterpart, the secretary of the Agudas Yisrael Moetzas Gedolei Torah, Yaakov Waltzer. In the letter, he addressed the split between the factions in some of the municipalities in the upcoming municipal elections.

In his letter, Rubinstein seeks to work for an election campaign with mutual respect and not to be dragged into disputes and machlokes as expressed in statements made by some representatives of Agudas Yisrael.

The letter states, “I appeal to you following the local election period that is beginning all over the country, and in some of the cities Degel Hatorah and Agudas Yisrael are competing separately according to the instructions of their rabbonim. Since some of the Agudas Yisrael members feel that they are not comfortable with the matter, I ask them to do everything in their power so that this period will pass over all people with Yiras Hashem in peace and tranquility.

“As is known to all,” Rubinstein explains in his letter, “Negotiations were held between our representatives and representatives of Agudas Yisrael to contend with a united list in the various cities. However, after Agudas Yisrael raised issues in some cities to restrict the Degel Hatorah party, we were instructed by our Gedolim to run with independent lists in Jerusalem, Elad, Betar Illit and Haifa.

“All the facts are clear and well known to the representatives of Agudas Yisrael, and because of this, due to lack of substantive arguments, a shameful and regrettable situation was created in which some of the representatives speak for themselves in various media outlets and the flames of terrible dispute between the tzibur and those who fear, with an abhorrent contempt for our rabbonim.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)