It is reported that Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon earlier in the week met with HaGaon HaRav Yosef Efrati, in the rav’s beis medrash, which is located at the entrance to the city’s Har Nof neighborhood.

On the face of things, it was a regular meeting, but according to the Kikar Shabbos News report, it marks a new era in the rabbinic leadership of Degel Hatorah in Jerusalem, and the return of Rabbi Efrati to the rabbinical committee of the party in Jerusalem.

The rabbinical committee was established by Maran HaGaon HaRav Aaron Leib Shteinman ZT”L, a committee with the task of making the decisions on burning issues pertaining to the Degel Hatorah representatives in the capital. Members of the rabbinical committee include Rosh Yeshivas Chevron HaGaon HaRav Dovid Cohen, Rosh Yeshivas Toras Ze’ev HaGaon HaRav Baruch Soloveichik and HaGaon HaRav Efrati.

Over the years, the authority of Rav Soloveitchik on the committee increased significantly, and it was he who began negotiating and speaking with former mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat. Rabbi Efrati, who felt he had no influence on the committee, decided to withdraw de facto and remain only as a member of the party’s national rabbinical committee.

With elections on the horizon, it is learned there was a difference of opinion among the rabbis serving on the committee, referring to the recent municipal elections, and the party’s candidate the Jerusalem mayoral race. It was Efrati who was insistent on Degel Hatorah backing Moshe Leon in that mayoral race.

Since the municipal election, Rabbi Efrati has returned to a position of influence on the Jerusalem rabbinic committee, albeit, in small measure. This week, Leon came to meet with the rav, and part of the meeting included many others, including Degel Hatorah Deputy Mayor Eliezer Ruchberger, the director of Rav Efrati’s beis medrash, Shabtai Markowitz, and Avi Abuchatzeira, an advisor to the mayor. Following the open meeting with the above-mentioned participants, the rabbi and the mayor met alone, in private.

According to a Kikar Shabbos News report, the rabbi asked the mayor to cancel the neighborhood plan, which was put into place by the former mayor, an agreement between Barkat and Rabbi Soloveitchik. That plan calls for dividing the neighborhoods of Jerusalem between the chareidi and secular communities, and in the framework of that plan it has already been decided where they will be building institutions for the chareidi population, and in which neighborhoods the chareidi residents will be compelled to migrate to a different neighborhood to enable their children to receive a chareidi education.

The plan drew considerable criticism among rabbis and political activists alike all representing the chareidi tzibur. They cried discrimination, insisting the plan being implemented by the mayor was discriminatory against the chareidim. Hence, Rabbi Efrati his calling on the new mayor to annul the plan.

Kikar Shabbos News and then contacted the mayor’s office for a response regarding the meeting and was told that the meeting was personal in nature and off the record.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)