Degel Hatorah worried about the date of the elections

Interestingly, Kikar is reporting that leadership in the Degel Hatorah faction of UTJ is concerned about the date of elections landing during the Pesach vacation from yeshiva.

Before continuing, I must point out that the date of elections was set by PM Benjamin Netanyahu upon consultation with all his coalition partners and was agreed upon by them all, so the date and how it happens during "bein hazmanim" was not something anti-haredi or collusion to hurt the haredi parties or anything like that. The Haredi parties were equally central in deciding the date of the elections.

So, why are they concerned? What is wrong with the date?

From what the leadership is hearing from their local municipal representatives and leadership they are concerned that because of the vacation period the yeshiva guys might be less involved in the election headquarters than they normally are, and Degel Hatorah, the entire UTJ really, rely heavily on the energy and the work of the yeshiva guys in the local headquarters all around the country.

They don't really say why the young men might not volunteer for the election work, but it seems the reason is that they will likely prefer to travel around the country vacationing on their regular tiyulim rather than work for the elections.

To that end, the party leadership is putting together a "secret"plan to motivate and mobilize these young men and get them to work for the party rather than give it up and prefer their vacations. You can see the Kikar article (linked above) for information about those plan).

Caveat: We do not know the reality yet as it is in the future. We only know what the leadership expects to happen and is worried about, so I base my coming comments on that alone.

I find it interesting that the yeshiva guys will work for the election campaigns in every single election as long as it means taking time off of learning and yeshiva schedule but won't give up their vacation schedule for that. We always hear how it is so important the Haredi parties do well in the elections in order to save the torah learning for the future ability to continue learning. Because of that they justify taking away so many yeshiva guys from the beis medrash to work for the campaigns for days or even weeks. Yet that level of importance is obviously not ingrained in the young men - only in the leadership. The young men, on the other hand, seem to take it as a break from the rigorous torah study, as an exciting time, fun, excitement, and perhaps in other forms of enjoyment. When it means giving up their own fun and relaxed schedule it seems they are not quite so willing and happy to participate.

Either the leadership just uses them cynically - [mostly] free labor, a motivated and fired up electorate and all that - or perhaps the leadership really believes it but that level of importance was never imparted to the young men in the yeshivas. If the leadership really believes it, maybe it is time to work on a program to imbue all that knowledge and belief in why it is so important and impart it to the younger generation.

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