(Photos: Flash 90, Mishpacha Archives)

Last week’s runoff elections for Jerusalem’s mayor — held two weeks after none of the original five candidates (Moshe Lion, Ofer Berkowitz, Zev Elkin, Yossi Deitsch, and Avi Salman) garnered 40% of the vote — might have had an uninspired 31% voter turnout. But for the yeshivish activists who took to the streets, and for Rav Chaim Kanievsky himself, it was a basic question of kevod Shamayim.

The losers & the winners: a reporter’s notebook, looking from the outside in

Sunday, November 11, two days before Jerusalem’s round-two mayoral elections

Last-Minute Loss

Yitzchak Pindrus is smiling. He smiled when he announced his candidacy and when he saw it challenged and while the Supreme Court deliberated his right to run for mayor of Elad, and then he smiled on the way out of the building after the justices upheld the lower court ruling disqualifying him.

It’s his way. Sitting across from me at an outdoor table in Jerusalem’s Mamilla mall, a short walk from his Old City residence, Pindrus appears to be in good spirits, but he is smoking, something I’ve never seen him do.

Ten years ago he quit, he tells me. He only resumed in the last few weeks. So despite the steady smile, the tension is affecting him after all.

Three months ago, Pindrus was drowning in work he loved. This deputy mayor of Jerusalem, senior advisor at the Haredi Institute, and former mayor of Beitar was making a hands-on difference.

He remembers the day the first phone call came.

It was a hot summer day, and he was in his office at City Hall, in Jerusalem’s Kikar Safra. Degel HaTorah Chairman Rabbi Moshe Gafni was on the line. He wanted Yitzchak Pindrus to run for mayor of Elad.

Elad. An up-and-coming town in central Israel, with tens of thousands of families and institutions — but not that attractive to a resident of the Old City of Jerusalem with a good job a few minutes from home.

But.

The “but” of frum politicians is that their position comes with a price. When you accept the title of “shlucha d’rabbanan,” it means you aren’t the one making the decisions.

Elad had been built along with two other chareidi cities, Modiin Illit (Kiryat Sefer) and Beitar, in the 1990’s. Those two cities are flourishing, while Elad is beset by bureaucratic problems. Degel had an agreement with the present mayor, Yisrael Porush of Agudah, that the mayoral slot would go to a candidate from their party after his five-year term. With Porush’s withdrawal, they would need a “star” candidate to win over the voters. Elad’s majority is Sephardic and Degel sought a candidate who would draw voters based on his experience and capability.

Pindrus was the guy.

Rabbi Pindrus said thanks but no thanks, but a few days later, another call came. Rav Chaim wants to speak with you.

It was a Friday, and the Pindrus family was making an aufruf for their son that Shabbos, not the ideal situation for peaceful, calm contemplation.

The day after the chasunah, Reb Yitzchak Zev Pindrus walked up the famous stairwell on Rechov Rashbam and sat down at the table next to Rav Chaim Kanievsky.

Rabbi Pindrus tried to make his case. His youngest son is ten years old, and still in cheder. His family was entrenched in Jerusalem.

“My wife and children don’t want to leave Yerushalayim,” he said. “The children are doing well in the mosdos there and don’t want to change.”

Rav Chaim didn’t disagree. “You can’t force your family to move. They should stay in Yerushalayim and you should go to Elad. They will join you for Shabbos, and during the week, you’ll go visit them too.”

Rav Chaim had ruled. Yitzchak Pindrus fell into line, but first, he consulted three different lawyers: Could a mayor lead the city alone, without his wife and children? Yes, they assured him. It was fine. It had been done many times before. (Excerpted from Mishpacha, Issue 718)