The press is having a field day with the remarks made in Yiddish to a chareidi audience on Sunday by Jerusalem mayoral candidate Rav Meir Porush. Porush was addressing an audience of Belze Chassidim, speaking in Yiddish, explaining to his audience that the chareidi world is growing rapidly and it would appear in 10-to-15 years, there will not be a non-chareidi mayor, expect perhaps in a small insignificant village.
Referring to the elections in Bet Shemesh, Porush stated it appears the city will also have a chareidi mayor, stressing the chareidi influence in the political arena continues to grow.
Porush’s remarks today are nothing less than cannon fodder for the media, with the mayoral candidate’s photo appearing in all major newspapers. His remarks are being used to portray him as a zealot, who has a hidden agenda to turn the nation chareidi despite his mayoral campaign that seeks to depict him as a moderate.
Porush campaign spokesman Moshe Friedman explained that Porush was referring to chareidi areas, not the entire country, adding it is somewhat discriminatory since mayoral candidate Nir Barkat is permitted to speak of a “chiloni Yerushalayim” but Porush is ostracized when he mentions a “chareidi Yerushalayim”.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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8 Responses
What exactly did he say wrong? Sounds rather benign.
מוסר השכל! סייג לחכמה שתיקה. לא משנה לאיזה קהל. לא משנה באיזו שפה.
A lesson for us all: silence is always wise in this day and age, regardless of the audiance, regardless of the language.
It is what everyone, secular and religious, knows. Orthodox Jews have a high birth rate, and many incentives to live in Israel, and non-Orthodox Jews have an amazingly low fertility rate and many incentives to move to America and Europe.
Shas has been addressing this issue for some time, it its time for Ashkenazi hareidim to do so as well. If we are going to take over Eretz Yisrael by strength in numbers, we have to develop the skills to run it without the hilonim.
Meir Porush is definitely not a diplomat. He’s own words are going to be used against him by the chiloni media. The Chareidi community is supporting him for lack of anyone else. Too bad…he will most definitely lose because he looks too charedi and talks too much.
Reb Meir would be wise to expend his energies portraying himself as fit to run the municipality; never mind that he would do so in accordance with his conscience. So would his opponent. Neither of them have to trumpet their consciences – everyone knew them before they even put their hat in the ring.
חכמים הזהרו בדבריכם!!!
So, If R’ Porush is not a diplomat, and not an entrepreneur, or a businessman; if he is not an experienced govt administrator or bureaucrat (as opposed to legislator, which we know he has been); If he has no experience bringing investment dollars, badly needed investment dollars, to Yerushalayim, why exactly should people vote for him? tzitzis and Peyos? Would you trust someone to rewire your house or redo your plumbing just because he has yiras shomayim? or do qualifications and applicable experience and the ability to represent the interests of the ENTIRE community count?