Aug 20, 2026

Hakahal primaries spam doesn't win votes

One of the new Haredi political parties that have recently been formed, HaKahal, held its primaries yesterday. Their primaries were held via their website and over the telephone. 

I hardly know anything at all really about the party or its positions, but based on the website more than a handful of the candidates are from Bet Shemesh, including a friend of mine. It looks like no women were included, which is always an issue that comes up when talking about new Haredi parties (seemingly as a way of trying to differentiate them from the mainstream Haredi parties).

Personally they called me more than twenty times yeterday throughout the day to encourage me to vote in the primaries. I never signed up as a member of the party nor as someone interested in voting int heir primaries, so I am not sure how they got my number (not that it is a top military secret) or why they called me to vote. maybe they just called everyone in all haredi towns and neighborhoods or something like that. I answered a few times (because the calls came in from a few different numbers) and ignored most of the calls. I was not interested enough (and frankly was busy with work when they initially called) in listening to the long message or in the voting process so after hearing what they wanted I just hung up. 

I get that they are a new party and are trying to encourage people to participate in their process and gather support, but spamming people with 20+ calls over the course of a day is not a way, at least I don't think it is, to create endearment or support.

Haredi news groups and media are reporting that the heads of Hakahal are disappointed with the level of participation in the primaries yesterday. With only little effort required, voting was to be done via telephone and internet with no need to go anywhere for physical voting, only about 14000 people voted. They had claimed leading up to the primaries that 90000 had registered to vote.

Personally, for a new Haredi party where it can be socially and communally dangerous for people to participate in such a thing, I think 14000 is pretty impressive, though that is still a far cry from having any realistic chance of getting into the Knesset. Maybe people were frustrated by all the calls (I personally was upset at the chutzpah) or didnt like listening to long lists of names over the phone and figuring out how to vote for them. Or maybe not enough people are really interested in this. 


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