Gur Issues No Call to Vote UTJ Before October 27 Election

Less than two weeks before Israel's October 27 election, Hamodia, the newspaper affiliated with Gur, has made no reference to the vote. It has published no call from the Gerrer Rebbe shlita, Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, to support United Torah Judaism (UTJ), Ynet reported. In earlier campaigns, appeals to vote UTJ appeared prominently in the paper weeks before polling day.

Gur leaders are now weighing whether to withhold an official call to their followers altogether. That would cost the chareidi alliance seats and could keep Belz candidate Elyakim Stark out of the Knesset. Gur representatives are negotiating for an agreement on how positions within the alliance will be divided before election day. If those talks fail, the chassidus may continue to hold back from urging its people to vote.

The arithmetic is simple. Yitzhak Goldknopf, Gur's senior political representative, holds second place on the joint list, a position high enough that his seat is considered secure. Stark is sixth and could lose his seat if UTJ wins fewer mandates.

The dispute erupted just hours before the deadline for submitting candidate lists. MK Meir Porush of the Shlomei Emunim faction and Stark, who represents Belz, split from Agudas Yisrael and formed their own party. That party remains inside the UTJ alliance, with Porush in fourth place on the joint list and Stark in sixth. Arutz Sheva reported that the pair broke away to secure funding in line with their electoral weight within UTJ.

The reports disagree on what is at stake. Gur has about 30,000 eligible voters, which Ynet estimated at one to one-and-a-half Knesset seats. Arutz Sheva put the potential loss at two seats if the community stays home. Belz officials told the outlet that Gur's vote amounts to 25,000 to 30,000 ballots, while natural growth in UTJ's voter base adds 55,000. In their view, a boycott would not touch even the seventh seat.

Agudas Yisrael is pressing Degel HaTorah, the Lithuanian faction that forms UTJ's other major component, for understandings on the status of Porush and Stark. It also wants Degel HaTorah to commit not to deal separately with the breakaway party in future elections unless that party rejoins Agudas Yisrael and accepts its framework. Agudas Yisrael did not respond to a request for comment.

A leadership change in Belz has also fed the rift. The Belzer Rebbe shlita named Stark as the chassidus's representative on the UTJ list in place of Yisrael Eichler. Eichler has served in the Knesset almost continuously since 2003 and is currently deputy communications minister.

Kikar Hashabat reported that Gur's "central faction," until now the electoral engine of Agudas Yisrael, has been silent this campaign.