R' Tzuriel Krispel of Shas was chosen to serve as the head of
the Municipal Council of Elad with a slim margin of sixty
votes. Rabbi Yaakov Asher, the candidate of the BeYachad-Chen
slate, which was warmly endorsed by maranan verabonon,
received 49% of the votes.
R' Tzuriel Krispel received 974 votes, while Rabbi Yaakov
Asher received 914. Nahari, an additional candidate for head
of the Council received 36 votes; 37 votes were invalidated.
Percentage-wise, R' Krispel received 51.51% of the votes;
Rabbi Yaakov Asher, 49.50%.
In elections to the Municipal Council Shas received 857
votes, entitling it to four representatives. The BeYachad-
Chen slate received 679 votes, and gets three
representatives. Mafdal (Ad) received 343 votes and will have
two representatives. Machal received 14 votes, and the A.M.
party, 30. 13 votes were invalidated.
A cooperation agreement signed on the eve of the elections
accords BeYachad and Mafdal a collective majority of five
members in the Council.
At the end of the election day, residents of Elad expressed
their regard for the candidate of the BeYachad slate Rabbi
Yaakov Asher for his integrity. They praised him for
conducting a clean campaign while focusing on the needs of
the city. A mere month after accepting the challenge of
maranan verabonon to run for office, he won the
hearts of city residents, meriting the trust of 49% of the
voters.
At stirring election rally two weeks before the elections,
HaRav Chizkiyahu Mishkovski conveyed the words of HaRav
Aharon Leib Steinman regarding the battle for the city's
spiritual character.
HaRav Mishkovski related that he had visited HaRav Steinman
before the rally. With an emotion-filled voice, HaRav
Steinman told him that be'ezras Hashem, Elad would
become a Torah metropolis and the voice of Torah would
resound in its shuls and botei medrash.
HaRav Mishkovski then said: "When there is Torah, when there
are yeshivos, kollelim, Torah institutions and
chessed, it's a different world: the sky and even the
air is different. Now it is up to each and every one of you
to make Elad a city of Torah, as HaRav Steinman has said. If
Elad becomes a city of Torah, all of its residents will
benefit, because a city of Torah means more gemachim,
more chessed, more unity, more chinuch. Chazal
say the talmidei chachomim are the true builders of
the city, and they cast the true foundations of Elad,
besiyato deShmaya."
HaRav Mordechai Gross, a member of the BaDaTz of Elad, rav
and av beis din of the Chanichei Hayeshivos community
of Bnei Brak, was the next to speak. In stirring words, he
said that Elad residents know that the true battle in the
city is over kovod haTorah. "For a long period,
shameful attempts have been made to disgrace the city's
rabbonim as well as others who study Torah. As a result, we
are obligated to unite to do everything possible to transform
Elad into a place of kiddush Hashem and kevod
HaTorah."
