On Monday, election day for the 15h Knesset, masses of Torah
Jews throughout the country were mekadesh sheim
Shomayim by voting for United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and by
participating in all of the varied activities on behalf of
the slate. The vast mobilization, in light of the call of
maranan verabonon, swept up all of the chareidi
centers and all of the smaller communities.
The organization and activity far exceeded that of any
previous elections. All sectors of the chareidi community
mobilized full force for the battle, and in the streets,
stirring scenes of old and young, who were active from the
early hours of the morning until the closing of the polls,
were widespread.
The activity began at the break of dawn, when, UTJ volunteers
rose to daven shacharis kevosikin, so that they could
open their headquarters as soon as possible. Outside the UTJ
headquarters in all of the country's cities, long lines of
cars queued up. By 7 a.m. cars began to bring the first
voters to the polls, and to take the chairmen and members of
the polls committees on behalf of UTJ to their respective
destinations.
UTJ's "Yiddishkeit from Door to Door" campaign, which began
last week, also reached a peak during the last few days, when
thousands of bnei Torah and other volunteers spread
all over the country, and brought the message of UTJ to the
masses, after drawing their attention to the vital need for
voting for the slate. This project was carefully and
thoroughly planned by the Yachad headquarters headed by Rabbi
Yechiel Turgeman, in conjunction with the Nationwide
Activists Headquarters headed by Rabbi Mordechai Blau.
Busses left two central locations, one in Bnei Brak and the
other in Jerusalem, to drive thousands to the country's
various cities and settlements to get out the UTJ vote. Over
a hundred busses were hired for this purpose.
From the early hours of the morning a fleet busses was also
mobilized to transport those who were registered to vote in
other locations to their polling places. This includes those
who moved recently, as well as many yeshiva bochurim
who maintain their voting residence at their parents'
homes.
In many home offices, Tefilla Headquarters were organized.
These headquarters were manned by children and by activists
who had returned from missions and were waiting to be
assigned to new ones.
The candidates of the slate traveled throughout the country
visiting the various headquarters, where they encouraged the
activists in their work. They also solved problems which
arose in the polls.
The organization of the computer department was particularly
impressive, especially in Yerushalayim. All neighborhood
headquarters were supplied with various sorted lists, with
keys to identify known UTJ supporters to ensure that they
vote.
A sophisticated system was also tried out for the first time
to streamline the monitoring of the voting throughout the
day. Party representatives are allowed to be present at the
polls to record the voting identification number of everyone
who votes. Instead of using the old method of marking them
down on charts, in many stations they typed them directly
into small devices which transmitted the information directly
to a central location from which the real-time results were
then faxed back to the neighborhood. This was the first time
the system was field tested, and some times it worked and
some times it did not. One advantage was that the central
headquarters could reinforce a particular neighborhood if it
saw that voting was low.
Special activity took place in the Immigrants' Headquarters
and the Women's Headquarters, which worked full force. The
volunteers returned home late at night, only after the votes
had been counted.
