Daitch gets ditched

This has been a relatively calm election campaign, but there was some drama this past week. Deputy Mayor Yossi Daitch is the mayoral candidate representing Agudat Yisrael in the haredi sector. He had it difficult from the beginning. First, he had to convince the spiritual leaders of his sector that the time was ripe for a haredi mayor, and that he is the right person to run for the position. In early September, Daitch, who is a Slonim Hassid, secured the approval of the Council of Torah Sages, a panel of the most senior rabbis in the haredi hassidic world. With their blessing in his pocket, mostly obtained through the strong support of MK Ya'acov Litzman (United Torah Judaism), Daitch moved on to get the approval of the Lithuanians (Degel haTorah). He soon discovered that not only did Degel (the majority among the haredim) refuse to endorse him, they even decided to support candidate Moshe Lion. What Daitch did from that moment on is not only smart (although it still early to say if it is successful), but also a clear indication that in Jerusalem, the traditional talk about unbridgeable gap between haredim and the pluralist sector has become somehow obsolete. Daitch has a surprisingly high degree of support among secular Jerusalemites, mostly those with a left-wing orientation, but not in numbers large enough to gain him victory, so Daitch continued to court the spiritual leaders of Degel, to convince them to shift their support from Lion to himself, arguing that the haredi sector would get no better emissary than one from their camp. Last Thursday evening (October 18) such an agreement was nearly reached, a dramatic step that would probably have brought Daitch very close to victory, perhaps even in the first round. It is still unclear what went awry at the last moment, but on Sunday (October 21), Degel leader Rabbi Kanievski published a declaration calling on his fellows to vote for Lion. Sources inside the sector explain that the issue is the result of many years of tension between Litzman and MK Moshe Gafni, the representative of Degel in the Knesset, which Daitch is now paying for. A source inside Daitch's camp added that nothing is set in stone until an agreement between Degel and Lion is written and signed. At press time, there will be five days left for last-minute developments. Meanwhile, Chaim Epstein, who was running a separate haredi list called “Bnei Torah” representing the radical Lithuanian haredim, has announced that he has withdrawn from the race for mayor, and now supports Ze'ev Elkin – an obvious blow to both Lion and Daitch. Epstein is estimated to control about 7,500 votes, not enough to completely alter the results, but more than enough to create a change in the dynamics. Epstein's move has returned Elkin, whose campaign seemed a bit lackluster recently, to center stage.

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