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Pamphlet opposing participation in municipal elections in Jerusalem. The preface states that on 7 Marheshvan [5]739 (Tuesday, November 7, 1978) municipal elections will be held in Jerusalem. Great efforts are being made to increase voter participation. Agudat Yisrael, Paolei Agudat Yisrael, and Mizrahi, in many places together, are working to influence the Haredi public to take part in the election. The authors of the pamphlet feel obligated to warn the religious public in each and every place, but especially in Jerusalem, the palace of the King, not to be influenced by them, for such participation goes against the principles expressed by our rabbis throughout the generations. The text of Ve-Yeda’at ha-Yom begins by enumerating the reasons, in eight paragraphs, that it is prohibited to vote in municipal elections. First is the participation of women, both as voters and as candidates, forbidden by rabbis over the ages. Immediately, as soon as one places his ballot in the voting box, he breaches the strictures established by our rabbis. Among the other reasons are that elections take place in public schools where children are instructed to rebel against the kingdom of heaven. Municipal statutes are based on non-Jewish law, and voting is therefore a hilul HaShem. Jews who protest the profanation of Shabbat in the streets are cruelly beaten, deeds supported by voting in the election that underlies the perpetrators’ authority. The municipal authorities support the opening of stadiums on Shabbat.
The second part of the pamphlet lists a long series of enactments and prohibitions of rabbinic authorities on the issue. Among the authorities it names are R. Joseph Hayyim Sonnenfeld (1849-1932), R. Joshua Leib Diskin (1817–1898), R. Isaac Ze’ev va-Levi Soloveichik (1886–1959), and R. Simhah Waldenberg. The final page (back cover of the pamphlet) lists the names of prominent contemporary rabbis, such as R. Isaac Jacob Weiss, R. Moses Aryeh Frend, R. Israel Moses Dischintsky, R. Israel Jacob Fisher, and R. Benjamin Rabbinowitz.
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