Standing Firm Against the Party of Deserters

Just as firmly as he held that one must vote, the Steipler ruled that PAI must be kept at a distance. The movement had begun in Europe as an organization of chareidi workers, part of the worldwide Agudas Yisroel movement, created as a counterweight to the workers' groups of the irreligious Zionists. Its youth wing, which included many members from Germany, founded several settlements in Eretz Yisroel.

As PAI became part of the country's farming life, its leaders took steps that amounted to a slow merger with Zionist bodies, and they drew away from the Agudah's Torah leadership, all the more so after the State was founded. In 5708 (1948) they placed their settlements on land of the Keren Kayemet (Jewish National Fund). This step had been debated years before with Rav Elchonon Wassermann, whom PAI's leaders had answered with marked disrespect, and now they claimed that the Chazon Ish's silence meant consent.

From then on, at every turn, PAI claimed the backing of a gadol who was never named: for mixed activities of boys and girls in Ezra, its youth movement, and for negotiating over Sherut Leumi (national service for girls). Over Sherut Leumi, the Chazon Ish wrote a PAI leader, Rav Kalman Kahana, a letter of fearsome rebuke, telling him that “a spirit of foolishness” had taken hold of them and that they were committing suicide.

In 5711 (1951) PAI's leaders backed an irreligious candidate for mayor of Petach Tikva over a religious one. Rav Yechezkel Sarna and Rav Meir Karelitz, the Chazon Ish's older brother, forbade it in a letter issued by the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. Rav Meir Karelitz was then PAI's official rav; when its politicians refused to listen, he resigned from every position of rabbinic or other leadership. For years after that, the Agudah, loyal to its Torah leaders, tried to sway PAI's leaders through its ordinary members, and the two still ran together in national elections.

In 5720 (1960) their joint list won six Knesset seats, three of which went to PAI's faction under B. Mintz. Then the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah ruled against joining the coalition of the leftist government, and PAI joined anyway. The secular press hailed it as “PAI's independence day,” meaning independence from the Torah leadership. Roshei yeshiva, Rebbes and leaders gathered and declared that PAI had broken away from Agudas Yisroel. The Rebbes of Ger, Vishnitz and Boyan, together with the Tchebiner Rov, told their followers to give up their PAI membership even if it hurt their livelihoods, and from then on the two parties ran on separate lists.

Rav Y. M. Levin passed away in 5733 (1973). He had chaired the Agudah's central committee and had always worked to hold the movement together. Soon voices within the Agudah began calling for PAI to return to the list. With elections approaching, the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah was hastily called together at very short notice, with rabbonim present who had never sat on it before.

The Steipler wrote to Rav Shach that merging with the deserters, whose ideology was the idol of Zionism and who would turn against the Moetzes again the moment they saw some gain in it, would be “a dreadful chillul Hashem.” It would be read as approving all their scheming, and as proof that defying the Torah and the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah pays well. He begged Rav Shach to do all he could to prevent it, warning that many members stayed with the Agudah only because it was not joined with the other side.

Rav Shach read the letter aloud at the meeting. A politician who favored the merger proposed putting it to a vote, and most of those present, the new members included, supported it. The joint list was called the United Torah Front. Rav Shach at once resigned from the Moetzes, and Rav Shlomo Berman of the Agudah's presidium also resigned in protest at how the matter had been handled. Their signatures, and those of other gedolei Torah, were missing from the campaign, but since there was no other chareidi list, no open opposition was voiced.

Rav Shlomo Lorincz, who headed the Agudah list and followed the gedolim faithfully, was told not to resign, but not to campaign for the list in Yerushalayim or Bnei Brak. He was allowed to speak in outlying towns, so that the chareidim there would not lose their connection to the movement. An avreich who asked whether to vote was told that this time no instruction to vote had been given, and without such an instruction one does not vote. The combined list won five seats, one fewer than the six the two parties had always won together.

The Gerrer Rebbe, the Beis Yisroel, instructed in 5737 (1977) that the party run separately from PAI, so as to unite the chareidim once more and win Rav Shach's agreement to return to the Moetzes. Rav Shach returned and called on the public to vote. The Steipler added a warm letter of his own, closing with praise for Rav Shach as one of “the remnants of the Knesses Hagedola.” In those elections the Agudah held its ground, and PAI was left with a single seat.

Just a year later, in the Bnei Brak municipal elections, a joint list was formed with a PAI candidate at its head. That PAI had found a way back in so soon, and in Bnei Brak of all places, drew a strong response from the gedolim. The Steipler and Rav Shach had Rav Chaim Shaul Karelitz publish a notice telling the public that the Aguda list must not receive their votes.

Some argued that the instruction was meant only for bnei Torah, and that their families and others could still vote for the list. After davening in the Lederman shul, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, the Steipler's son, walked over to the notice board and wrote beneath the notice in his own hand that it applied to talmidei chachamim and amei ha'aretz alike, to the men themselves and to their wives, and to their sons and daughters.

Before the elections of 5741 (1981), Aguda activists asked the Steipler for a letter of support, and he sent them away. Rav E. Tabaschnik, who often visited his home, heard from him then that he was unhappy with the state of things in the Agudah and did not mean to sign for them at all. A few days later, though, a letter from the Steipler appeared urging people to vote Aguda, in somewhat reserved language. Rav Tabaschnik went to ask what had changed. The Steipler explained that he had indeed meant not to write, but when he heard that his refusal had upset Rav Shach, he agreed.

Three days later word came out that people from inside the Agudah had strengthened the separate PAI list. The Steipler quickly sent out a second letter, warning that every vote for another list was “demolition and destruction for Jewry,” and that whoever voted that way was among those who lead the public to sin. In those elections PAI fell short of the votes needed for even one seat and vanished from the political map. It has only declined since.