The battle for the mayorship of Elad is undoubtedly the most dramatic of the ultra-orthodox cities throughout the country, due to the fact that the elections in this city may be decided by a single vote. These days there is a real political war going on between the mayor of Israel Parosh and the Shas candidate Yehuda Botbul, with each candidate trying to recruit new audiences for his benefit.
Forosh’s battle now is also over the Spanish public in the city, since in the last Knesset elections, about 48 percent voted for the Shas party. However, in the city of Elad, as has been proven in the past, the numbers in the Knesset do not necessarily reflect the numbers from the municipal point of view. For example, the congregation of the Mazuz Shlita GRAM voted for the Shas Knesset, while now, the head of the yeshiva has ordered to vote rather to retire. But as mentioned, the battle this time seems tighter than ever and it is really hard to predict who will win the stormy election campaign in the Torah city.
In every election campaign in recent years, the city of Elad is in the headlines. But this time, Elad is the city that reopened the cards in all the cities across the country, this after the Torah flag announced support for the Parosh, apparently contrary to the agreement that was made in the past with Shas. On the other hand, Maran the Rebbe of Vizhnitz announced that Hasidism will support botball.
Today (Tuesday), exactly one week before the local elections, we talked with Proush about all the burning issues in the city. About the Sephardic support for him, the reason why the Wizenitz Chassidut does not support him, the stirrings of Gur and Seibert in the city, the relations with Aryeh Deri and Botbol, and also: did Degel HaTorah really violate the agreement with Shas when it announced its support for Parosh?
Shas is apparently the majority in the city, how do you think you will still win?
“I don’t know why you assume that Shas are the majority in the city. I have to tell you that over 20 years ago, Zuriel Crispel defeated Yaakov Asher by about 30 votes. After that, there were two consensual terms, when Israel Parosh defeated Crispel by 580 votes, and the second time by over 2,000 votes. What I want to say is that before the Knesset elections, Chaim Biton came and asked me that I would not speak in the Knesset and that I would let them get as many votes as possible and it would not affect the town. I was wrong, I believed as I always try to believe, and here you see what happened.”
“Both our teacher, the head of the Yeshiva, Gram Mazoz, and the Holy Hida, that I so appreciate what is happening in the institutions there, and also in Russelov, Chabad, the Yemenis, and many audiences, voted for Shas in the Knesset, and Gram Mazoz told Derai that in the municipality, this is not going to work. so. So if then they brought 48 percent, I understand that in the municipality it looks significantly different.”
How many Spaniards do you think will support you?
“Elad is one of the cities that try to live on sectarianism – Bukharians from Tripoli, Moroccans, Yemenis, Shams, Balds. Trying to divide and divide. I think as everyone’s mayor. A pool for 5 shekels – I brought it to everyone, when I built a cemetery for everyone it was free, I brought a zoo and horse farm for free to everyone, when I give tens of millions in Kimha Depasscha even throughout the year it is for everyone, when I built classes for 15,000 children who were in trailers and containers it was for everyone . Therefore, the residents are not stupid and understand the matter and they will know what needs to be done next week on Tuesday.”
Parosh is blessed by the Gram Mazuz
Really in Elad there is a difference between the national and local voting pattern regarding Shas. Why is this so?
“I think it’s like that in all cities, while in my country they get more. It’s been like this all these years in Elad, I won’t go into it but I said, the Grom Mazuz says what he says and apparently in my country it is conducted differently. I don’t go into it because I don’t belong to the national part but to the urban part. I know what I’m doing here for the residents, I know how I live with the residents and I’m sorry that only on election night do all the scrap cars of the ministers and members of the Knesset come here and promise that they want to continue doing it. And you know, the day after the elections it’s already my third term. I don’t know them throughout the term they come and offer help. On the contrary, unfortunately.”
Why doesn’t Vizhnitz Hasidism support you?
“It’s a painful subject, I took it upon myself not to talk about it. It’s not something that belongs to Elad, it’s an earthly thing. I am very pained about this issue. Even if they came out against me, and they are coming out, and I know that they are making pranks – I will not speak.”
Will there be Vishnitz followers who will vote for you?
“I don’t touch this thing. It’s a very painful and incomprehensible subject and I took it upon myself not to talk about it.”
There were claims that the Hasids of Gur and Hanoch Seibert were stirring up the city. This is true?
“This is true. Unfortunately, I can tell you that Seibert, the man that everyone put a veto on and we worked to remove the veto, is the one who has the biggest part in all the conflicts in many, many places. Is Seibert the conflicted one? Disciplinary.”
Ben Gvir and Porush tour the city last week
Why are they interfering in Elad, after all, there are no Gur Hasidim in the city?
“Tell me, do you understand why Putin has the leader of the opposition dead? Do you understand why with Putin everyone who speaks a word against him – disappears? Unfortunately, this is how it has been going over the years. It happened in Beitar 16 years ago when they did the things that should not be done and they stand behind it, it happened in Beit Shemesh 10 years ago and they stood behind it, and unfortunately when everyone said that he was supposedly the good person and in the month of Tammuz, I said that he was behind all of this.”
Why did the election campaign and the conflicts start in Elad, something that affected all the cities in Israel?
“I accepted Elad 10 years ago with an accompanying accountant, with tens of millions of deficits – nothing worked here in the city. I think that when I look at Elad, I took the professionals even in youth and you see – a fact that all the government ministries point out to praise Elad. Today everyone is proud to live in Elad. You have a pool, a community center, a library, a zoo, a horse farm, a 10 dunam hiking trail, an agricultural farm, culture, an amusement park for free – whatever you want you have here in the city. There is no other city, certainly in the ultra-orthodox sector and even in the general cities, that have done so many things in such a short period of time.”
Photo: Flash 90
“Now, there should be people from across the street who come and say – “Wait, Shrolik is pulling out a bulldozer, but his problem is that he is knocking the Spaniards off”. I have to blow it once and for all. If the Rabbi of the Gram Mazoz moves a lot from Besot and has over 1,000 students here. So he is no longer Shas. If Rabbi Malka, the Mara Datra, is so happy and has over 4,000 children in institutions here and they are all satisfied, then he is not Shas. If the tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer ben David Zatzokal with all his institutions are satisfied, then they are not Shas. If the Gabra institutions established by Maran Hagarsh in Adani Zatzukal are so satisfied, then they are not Shas. If Amri Bina is not satisfied, then they are not Shas either. So who is Shas, what is going on here?”
“Before I arrived 10 years ago, there was fire and knives between Zuriel Crispel and Rabbi Grossman and Rabbi Malka. Zvika Cohen had a good time with Rabbi Grossman, but with Crispel there was a Gog and Magog war. Shrolik Parosh from Chokmak arrived, went to the two rabbis and made peace between them. They value me and I value them. They are really the spiritual mayors of the city and I am the physical one – cleaning the streets, building buildings, putting 15,000 children from trailers and containers into buildings. So they will say that I knock the Spaniards? What do I knock them with? Look how happy everyone is. Easter Kamha, helping the poor, orphans and widows, marrying people, collecting money every year and rebuilding many Sephardic churches”.
But why did all politics start from Elad?
“Maybe it’s hard for Arya Deri to see me. Rabbi Arush once said to me, call yourself Arush, why do you call yourself Prush.”
What does Derai have against you?
“ask him. I was once with Hacham Shalom Cohen and he asked me to do an event, where we raised NIS 3 million. Then Chacham Shalom says to me – “Why do they keep telling me that you are destroying the Sephardi there?” I told him – “Rabbi, talk to me”. Hacham Shalom’s son, Rabbi Yaakov Cohen, said to his father – “What’s up father, he does good to everyone”. So there is a question here. If you want to work with dirty people, I don’t know how to be there, if you want to argue about doing and giving, believe me, no one will be able to stand in front of me.”
Parosh and Deri in better days
You avoid attacking Deri directly
“Why should I attack? I’m not preoccupied with the negative. I sleep two hours a night, I’m abroad and I sit on pews in a synagogue, and sometimes I get sores from going to collect money for people, I work day and night to help orphans, widows, marry people, help the poor, bring young men to meetings, bring money to people’s Sabbaths, arrange , to build synagogues. Why do I need to talk about dirt? When you have nothing to do, when you don’t know what to answer, then you can talk dirty and attack. Why should I attack? I need to talk about the good things I did. I know my favorite Elad, Elad whom everyone spoke against in the past and everyone fought with everyone. Today it is a quiet and beautiful city where everyone is happy to live. 6,000 apartments went on the market, 2 million meters of employment and commerce, thousands of yeshiva guys who hang around here. Why should I speak negatively when I can speak positively?”
Did you get to talk to Deri recently?
“In the last ten years, he came twice on the tour. After all, I can’t reach Derei because I have a kosher cell phone and when you call it, it has a personal code. He also gave me certificates from the Ministry of the Interior 4 times and that’s it, maybe there was also a meeting once.”
Degel Torah violates the agreement with Shas when it supports you?
“I don’t want to talk about it, I see how people try to do what they do, but if I have no choice, I will open everything. I want to tell you that they made a commitment, and even signed it, to the chairman of Degel HaTorah in Elad (Avi Stern. A.M.) that they would not make an agreement without him. And even if someone made an agreement, how did he do it if he was promised that he would not make an agreement without it. I tell you that a day will come and everyone will realize that there was nothing. I talked too much…”
But Garach Kanievsky signed, didn’t he?
“When they need to, they will talk about everything.”
Are you actually saying that there was no agreement and ransom in everything?
“The Torah elders of the Torah flag know what they are doing, and if they did it they know everything.”
And what do you say about the words of Maran Hagarmetz in German who said that violating the agreement is blasphemy?
“I really prefer to stay in the city doing things. By the way, Rabbi Bergman’s son is buried here in the Elad cemetery, and everyone in the city knows who fought against it so that the residents of Bnei Brak will not come to be buried here.”
Retired from the Gramatz after the harsh letter
Maran HaGard Lando supports you because you are a good “Ladyishkeit” of the city. Botball is not good for ladyskate?
“I repeat, there are great Israelis who speak about the issues, I will only speak positively and believe me they know what they are saying.”
What is your relationship with botball?
“Yehuda Botbol came last week to the wedding of one of the boys he married, I grabbed him, I danced with him. I think nothing is personal even if they try to make it that way.”
Prosh and botball. Photography: Yaakov Cohen
Is the current election campaign more difficult and creative than previous times?
“There are a lot of painful things and I pay very high prices, but I am sitting on it so that in the city it will not reach this level. And naturally, a mayor gives, changes the world, invests for everyone and sometimes you feel like you’re being spat on, but you can take it personally and you can make a decision that this is how the Creator of the world wants and this is the way to continue helping and giving to everyone. Look, there’s another week left and you don’t see hate, even if they try, I don’t give back. Everything is fine”.
In the past, as revealed for the first time in JDN news, you were offered to move to a position in Jerusalem. Why did you refuse the offer?
“A human being does not live for the position, I was sent by the elders of Israel 15 years ago to Ead, there was a spiritual and physical wasteland here. I think everyone admits that there has been a revolution here in the city, I don’t think I’m leaving a ship in the middle of it sailing. I’m in the middle of a process. We are going to build 2 million square meters of employment, more yeshivas are supposed to arrive here, build another 6,000 housing units, sort out all the decency, all the funds from the investment of the previous years are now coming to the council and this needs to be sorted and routed.”
If you win, what percentage will you get?
“I’m not going into percentages, I’m telling you that you work hard and the public is not ungrateful. Rabbi Mazoz said – there is no substitute for Israel who has left Israel. Before he arrived there was a world war between everyone, and today everyone is happy. That’s why I’m satisfied with this, I hear the blessings I receive and I will go with this strength and with the help of God, there will be a helper.