Jerusalem – Ashkenazi Charedi Leaders Challenging Gur over Chinuch Atzma’i

Jerusalem – Rabbinic leaders of the Ashkenazi Haredi community held a rare summit in Jerusalem to discuss the fate of the community’s Hinuch Atzma’i school system.

The conference, the first in 29 years, is an open challenge to the Gur Hasidim, the largest Hasidic sect in Israel and one of the many sects within the broader Ashkenazi Haredi community.

Gur on Sunday tried to get the summit postponed, but failed.

The battle for control of Hinuch Atzma’i – which is extremely influential and controls vast budgets – began in January 2008, when longtime executive director Meir Luria died suddenly, sparking an inheritance battle.

However, the battle was not just personal: Rather, Gur was fighting to maintain its power against a coalition of smaller Hasidic sects plus the non-Hasidic “Lithuanians.” The United Torah Judaism Knesset faction is composed of the Lithuanian Degel Hatorah party, along with the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael.

The coalition was led by veteran MK Meir Porush, who was then also running for mayor of Jerusalem. The Hasidic Porush had secured Degel Hatorah’s backing for his mayoral bid via a secret deal in which he promised to restructure Hinuch Atzma’i’s management such that Gur would lose its primacy and be reduced to a “proportionate share” based on its size.

That caused an internal Haredi rift which, inter alia, resulted in the Haredim losing the mayoralty: Porush was defeated by Nir Barkat after Gur withheld its support to retaliate for his deal with Degel Hatorah.

It also prompted the opening of another Haredi daily, Hamevaser, representing the smaller Hasidic sects, on top of the veteran Hasidic daily Hamodia and the Lithuanian Yated Ne’eman.

Finally it led UTJ to appoint MK Moshe Gafni (Degel Hatorah) as chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee instead of MK Yaakov Litzman, the Gur Hasid who held this post in three previous Knessets.

Todays summit was expected to approve the establishment of a new nonprofit organization to run Hinuch Atzma’i, in place of the organization that Gur founded decades ago.

When this idea was first broached in late 2008, Gur, in an unusual move, sued in civil court to halt the new group’s registration.

But Gur would have trouble taking similar action against a move approved by the rabbinic heavyweights attending Monday’s conference – who represent not only Degel Hatorah and Agudat Yisrael’s Israel branch, but also Agudat Yisrael’s American branch.

The Hasidic leaders approved the establishment of a new association to run the independent Haredi education system. The new association would replace the current one, established by the Gur Hasidic sect decades ago.

In addition to Hasidic leaders, two of the most important figures in the non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodox world, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman, were also present. They praised the Haredi unity expressed by the presence of three significant groups: the Council of Torah Sages of the non-Hasidic Degel Hatorah, and representatives of Agudat Yisrael from Israel and the United States.

When asked whether the move was another step in this war, Rabbi Menahem Porush, father of MK Meir Porush answered: “subconsciously, yes.”