The Rabbis of Hatzibur Hacharedi

Last updated 22 Oct 2026 • 14 min read

Moti Leitner's party has published the names of ten rabbinic advisers. Not one of them leads a mainstream Charedi yeshiva, kehilla, or beis din. The rav who taught the committee's chairman for a decade is not on the list, and the chairman will not say why. Meanwhile the gedolim who do lead the Charedi world have spoken, and they have said no.

Ten rabbis. One letter. A party that calls itself "The Charedi Public."

For weeks the question hung over Moti Leitner's campaign: which Gedolei Torah stand behind you? On October 10 the party answered with a list. Ten rabbanim, it said, now form the party's rabbinic committee, chaired by Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer, to provide ongoing guidance.

We took the list seriously. We read the public biography of every name on it, the institutions each one leads, and the way those institutions describe themselves.

Here is what we found, and it can be said in one sentence.

Not one of the ten holds a leadership position in a mainstream Charedi institution. No rosh yeshiva of a yeshiva in the Charedi mainstream. No rav of a mainstream Charedi kehilla. No member of any Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah or Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah. No dayan on a recognized Charedi beis din. The list includes a rav whose shul calls itself Zionist and Torani Leumi, a rav whose shul calls itself Modern Orthodox, two American public intellectuals, the local rav of Kfar Shmaryahu, three men whose work is in Charedi hesder and integration frameworks, one name we could not verify at all, and a chairman who runs the Charedi division of an American foundation.

Those are their own descriptions, from their own websites. We did not have to interpret anything.

First, What This Article Is Not

This is not an attack on any of these ten men. Chas v'shalom.

We are not questioning their yiras Shamayim, their learning, or their decades of service. Several learned in serious yeshivos. Several have written sefarim. All of them have given their lives to Torah in one form or another, and that deserves respect.

Nor are we ruling on who is personally Charedi. A person's identity is his own business.

But a party is not a person. When a political party names itself "The Charedi Public" and presents a committee as the Torah authority behind that name, the public has every right to ask one question: which Charedi communities and institutions do these rabbis actually lead?

That is a question about institutions, not about neshamos. And the answer is a matter of public record.

The Ten Names

1. Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer, Chairman

Rabbi Pfeffer learned under Rav Asher Weiss for close to a decade, served as a dayan on Rav Weiss's beis din, and is rav of the Ohr Chadash kehilla in Ramot. He has written on halacha and machshava. These are real credentials, and his Charedi upbringing is not in dispute.

But his public work for the past ten years tells a different story about where he stands institutionally. He is founding editor of Tzarich Iyun, head of the Iyun Institute, and head of the Tikvah Fund's Haredi Israel Division. He sits on the board of Netzach Yehuda, which supports Charedi army service, and has been involved in programs bringing secular studies into Charedi schools.

The Tikvah connection is not incidental. Tikvah's own impact report describes its Haredi Leadership Project as launched in 2015 under Rabbi Pfeffer's leadership, with two stated goals: to encourage "new thinking about the future of the Charedi community" and to train Charedi leaders for "greater civic responsibility." Those are Tikvah's words.

We found no evidence that Tikvah funds Leitner's party or directs the committee, and we are not claiming it does. What we are saying is simpler. The chairman of a committee that is supposed to represent the Charedi mainstream has spent a decade employed by an American foundation whose stated purpose is to change the Charedi mainstream.

Sources: Tikvah Fund Impact Report | Rabbi Pfeffer biography, Darche Noam

2. Rabbi Carmi Gross

Forty five years in chinuch. Beis HaTalmud, Brisk, Lakewood. Author of sefarim. All of it real.

Today Rabbi Gross leads the Derech Chaim network, which describes its own approach as "Charedi hesder": Torah study combined with technology training, professional preparation, and army service. Netivey HaTorah, also under his guidance, is a Charedi high school yeshiva on the same model.

These institutions exist precisely because they are an alternative to the mainstream yeshiva system. That is their stated purpose. Rabbi Gross's leadership of them says nothing about what the mainstream yeshiva world thinks of Leitner's party, because his institutions were built to stand outside it.

Sources: Derech Chaim | Netivey HaTorah

3. Rabbi Yosef Ben Arza

Learned in Kol Torah and Ateres Yisrael. Author of the Yosef Daas series on Shas. A talmid chacham.

His current position is as a ram at Yeshivat Mishmar HaTorah, which identifies itself as a Charedi hesder yeshiva associated with Rav Dovid Leibel, combining learning with preparation for army service. The same point applies as with Rabbi Gross. He teaches in a framework built as an alternative to the mainstream. He leads no mainstream kehilla and holds no position of authority over the broader yeshiva world.

Source: Mishmar HaTorah

4. Rabbi Dov Ludmir

The party's announcement describes him as a community rav in Bnei Brak. That is the entire verifiable biography. We could not establish which kehilla he leads, how large it is, or what relationship it has with the city's Torah leadership. Bnei Brak has hundreds of shuls. An address is not a mandate.

If the party can tell us which kehilla Rabbi Ludmir leads, we will print it.

Source: Kikar HaShabbat, October 10

5. Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein

Semicha from Chofetz Chaim in New York. A long career with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Israel365, the Association for Jewish Outreach Professionals, and the Cross-Currents website. A serious writer on Torah and contemporary issues.

He is also number six on Leitner's Knesset list. A man cannot be both the independent rabbinic conscience of a party and a candidate on its slate. When the committee rules on a question that affects the party's electoral fortunes, Rabbi Adlerstein is ruling on his own seat.

His career has been in American Orthodox commentary and advocacy. He has never led an Israeli Charedi kehilla or yeshiva.

Sources: Party biography | Candidate list | Cross-Currents, August 4

6. Rabbi Daniel Myers

Rav of Kehillat Menorat HaMaor in Ramat Beit Shemesh. Yeshivat Har Etzion and Yeshiva Bnai Torah in Far Rockaway.

His shul's own website describes the kehilla as "Zionist Torani Leumi Orthodox." Its mission statement says it is a Torani Leumi congregation committed to Torah, Eretz Yisrael, and Medinat Yisrael.

We respect that identity. It is not a Charedi identity, and the shul does not claim it is. A Religious Zionist rav sitting on the rabbinic committee of "The Charedi Public" is the clearest possible illustration of what this list actually is.

Sources: Menorat HaMaor, About | Mission statement | Rabbi Myers

7. Rabbi Daniel Lapin

Founder of Pacific Jewish Center in Venice, California, and president of the American Alliance of Jews and Christians. A broadcaster and author whose audience is largely American and largely not Jewish, on topics of business, economics, and biblical values.

He has never led an Israeli Charedi kehilla or yeshiva. What constituency in Bnei Brak, Yerushalayim, Modiin Illit, or Elad does Rabbi Lapin speak for? The party has not said.

Sources: Rabbi Lapin biography | FAQ

8. Rabbi Moshe Kowlund

Listed on the party's letter. We could find no reliable public biography under this name in Hebrew or English: no kehilla, no yeshiva, no published position. That may be a spelling issue or a limitation of what is online, and we will not invent a profile to fill the gap. But when a party calls a body its highest rabbinic authority, the public should at least be able to find out who is on it.

Source: Charedim10, committee roster

9. Rabbi Dr. Avraham (Alan) Kimche

Learned in Kol Torah and the Mir under Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz, and Rav Yehoshua Neuwirth. A doctorate on kavod habriyos in halacha. Thirty five years as rav of Ner Yisrael in Hendon, London.

Ner Yisrael's own history page says it was founded in 1984 as "an independent Modern Orthodox Jewish community," intellectually and socially modern, Zionist, and inclusive, and compares itself to Young Israel congregations in America.

A Modern Orthodox shul's description of itself is not an insult. It is a fact, and it means Rabbi Kimche's decades of service were to a community that defines itself as not Charedi.

Sources: Ner Yisrael history | Biography | Young Israel

10. Rabbi Uri Einhorn

Rav of Kfar Shmaryahu, one of the wealthiest and most secular towns in Israel, where he oversees the chevra kadisha, Kehillat Heichal HaBanim, and the eruv. Honest, important rabbinic work. Not a Charedi community, not a Charedi yeshiva, not a Charedi mandate.

Source: Kfar Shmaryahu Municipality

Add It Up

Two rabbis of shuls that describe themselves as Religious Zionist or Modern Orthodox. Two American public intellectuals, one of them a candidate on the list. One local rav in a secular coastal town. Three men whose entire institutional footprint is in hesder and integration frameworks built as alternatives to the mainstream. One name with no public profile. One chairman employed by an American foundation to change the Charedi community.

Ten rabbis. Zero mainstream Charedi institutions.

Now hold that list up against the public it claims to speak for. According to the Israel Democracy Institute's tenth annual statistical report on Charedi society, released this year, there are roughly 1.45 million Charedim in Israel, about 14.3 percent of the country. That is Bnei Brak, Yerushalayim, Modiin Illit, Beitar Illit, Elad, Ashdod, Beit Shemesh, and dozens of smaller communities. It is hundreds of yeshivos and kollelim, thousands of shuls, every chassidus, every Litvishe kehilla, every Sephardi community, each with its rabbanim, its roshei yeshiva, its dayanim, its admorim.

Out of all of that, a party calling itself "The Charedi Public" found a rav in Kfar Shmaryahu, a rav in London, a rav in Venice, California, and a rav of a Religious Zionist shul in Ramat Beit Shemesh. We will not pretend to know how many Charedi families these ten men actually lead. The party has not told us, and we do not invent numbers. But the reader can look at 1.45 million on one side and these ten names on the other and reach his own conclusion.

That is not a rabbinic committee of the Charedi public. It is a rabbinic committee of a movement that wants to change the Charedi public, and the two are not the same thing.

The Name That Is Missing

Rabbi Pfeffer learned under Rav Asher Weiss for nearly ten years and sat on his beis din. Rav Asher Weiss is one of the most respected poskim alive, with standing across the Charedi world and beyond it. If any gadol in Israel could be expected to appear at the top of a committee chaired by his own talmid, it is he.

He is not on the list.

On October 21, on Kikar HaShabbat's Kikar FM podcast, host Eli Gotthelf asked Rabbi Pfeffer directly whether he consults his rebbe about the party. Rabbi Pfeffer's answer was "No comment," followed by: "I don't drag in rabbanim who don't want to be inside."

Read that again. The chairman of the committee will not say whether the rav he learned under for a decade supports the project. If Rav Asher Weiss were behind it, there would be no reason on earth to hide it. The silence of the one gadol closest to this committee is the loudest fact on the whole list.

Source: Kikar FM, October 21

The Other Missing Name

Charedim10 noticed on October 10 that Rav Dovid Leibel, the man most identified with building frameworks for working Charedim, the figure whose yeshiva employs committee member Rabbi Ben Arza, did not sign the letter either. Asked why, a senior party candidate said he did not know and referred the question to the party spokesman. No answer came.

If the rav who built the working Charedi world will not put his name to the party that claims to speak for the working Charedi world, what exactly does this committee represent?

Source: Charedim10, October 10

"The Rabbis Are Afraid"

Leitner's answer to all of this, on Kol Chai on October 20 and again through Rabbi Pfeffer on October 21, is that there are more rabbanim behind the party, senior ones in Bnei Brak, but they are afraid to say so publicly. Rabbi Pfeffer told Kikar FM that one leading Bnei Brak sage told him: "I can't. They will persecute me out of Bnei Brak."

Let us be clear about one thing first. Nobody should harass a rav, his family, or his institution over politics. If that has happened, it is wrong, and we condemn it.

But we do not accept the argument, and here is why.

A psak that cannot be said out loud is not a psak. The entire structure of Charedi life rests on gedolim who tell the public what Hashem wants of them, in writing, with their names on it, and accept the consequences. The Chazon Ish did not whisper to Ben-Gurion. The Brisker Rav did not issue anonymous opinions. Rav Shach stood in Yad Eliyahu and said what he had to say to the entire country. A rav who believes the halacha requires Charedim to vote for a new party, and who also believes that Hashem alone is to be feared, says so. That is what "Charedi" means. The word is chared, one who trembles, and the trembling is before Hashem, not before a WhatsApp group in Bnei Brak.

So the "afraid rabbis" story leaves the party with two possibilities, and neither helps it. Either these senior rabbanim exist and are choosing their comfort over what they believe to be the ratzon Hashem, which is an insult to them that we do not believe. Or they do not exist as described, and what Rabbi Pfeffer heard were the polite words a rav says to a visitor who is leaving his house, not a halachic position.

Leitner himself told Kol Barama in August that he had sat in the homes of "hundreds of rabbanim and admorim" over the past year and received encouragement. Hundreds. And after a year of visits, the number willing to sign is ten, and not one of the ten leads a mainstream institution.

That number is not a mystery to be explained by fear. That number is the answer.

And it raises the question the party cannot escape. If ten rabbis from outside the Charedi mainstream is the very best this party could assemble after a year of trying, what gives it the right to call itself "The Charedi Public"? A party is entitled to call itself whatever it wishes. But the public is entitled to notice when the name on the door does not match the people inside.

Sources: Kol Barama, August 25 | Kikar FM, October 21

The Gedolim Who Did Speak

While the party tells us its rabbanim are too afraid to speak, the actual leaders of the Charedi world have been speaking all week, by name, in public, without fear.

On October 17, at a gathering of Degel HaTorah rabbanim and roshei yeshiva, Rav Dov Lando called on the public to vote for list Gimmel and warned, in words reported by Ynet, that "every vote for these parties causes the next generation to grow distant from the heritage of their fathers."

On the night of October 20 to 21, at a Yahadut HaTorah gathering in Ashdod led by Rav Lando and Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, Rav Lando went further. Kipa reports that his remarks were directed at voters weighing the new lists, and names The Charedi Public among them. "No one has any doubt that there is an obligation to vote Gimmel in these elections," he said, calling it the continuation of "the clear instruction of Maran the Chazon Ish." Of those who would leave the list over grievances, he said: "Whoever does this will lose his identity" as part of the world of Torah. And he asked the question every parent in the room understood: "What will they think, when they see that Abba or Ima has removed themselves from the klal, chas v'shalom?" He closed by asking the crowd to spare the Charedi world another "adventure" with new parties.

Also on October 17, Rav Yitzchak Yosef, in his weekly shiur at the Yazdim shul in Yerushalayim, told the Sephardi public: "This is spiritual pikuach nefesh. Put all the complaints aside and go out and vote Shas." Ynet's report summarizes his position in four words: a different vote is a chillul Hashem.

The same week, the Belzer Rebbe's gabbai announced the Rebbe's support for Yahadut HaTorah in his presence, and the Gerrer Rebbe's call to vote Gimmel was reported as forthcoming.

Put the two lists side by side. On one side: Rav Dov Lando and Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, the roshei yeshiva of Slabodka who stand at the head of Degel HaTorah, the former Rishon LeTzion, the Belzer Rebbe, the Gerrer Rebbe, and the Moetzes behind them, speaking with their names and faces, in public halls, to thousands. On the other side: ten rabbis from outside the mainstream, a rebbe who gets "no comment," and an unnamed sage who is said to be afraid.

The Charedi public does not need an investigation to know which side is Daas Torah. It only needed the two lists.

Sources: Ynet, October 17 | Kipa, October 21

Why This Is Not a Side Issue

Someone reading this from outside might ask why it matters so much. Plenty of parties run without rabbis. Why should this one be different?

Because this one chose the name.

The Charedi world is not a demographic. It is not a style of hat or a neighborhood. It is a decision, renewed every generation, to live by the guidance of Gedolei Torah even when their guidance is hard, even when we have complaints, even when a clever man with billboards tells us the gedolim are out of touch. That decision is not one feature of Charedi life among many. It is the thing itself. Take it away and what remains is Orthodox Jews with a Charedi wardrobe.

Every political movement that has ever tried to peel Charedim away from their gedolim has made the same pitch: your leaders are disconnected, your parties are failing you, the new generation deserves better, and look, here are some rabbis who agree with us. The pitch is always sincere. The rabbis are always real rabbis. And the result, every time, is a community that has to choose between the men on the billboards and the men in the beis medrash.

Rav Lando said it in Ashdod this week in one sentence. Whoever does this loses his identity. He was not making a threat. He was describing what the word Charedi means.

What To Do on October 27

The election is in five days.

Leitner's party is polling at a fraction of one percent. Every Charedi vote it receives will, in all likelihood, be thrown away, and a vote thrown away in this election is a vote taken from the Torah world at the moment it faces the harshest decrees in its history.

But that is the practical argument, and it is not the main one.

The main one is this. Your rav, your rosh yeshiva, your rebbe, and the gedolim they follow have told you, by name and in public, what to do. Rav Lando has said it. Rav Hirsch has said it. Rav Yitzchak Yosef has said it. The Belzer and Gerrer Rebbes have said it. Not one gadol of the mainstream Charedi world has said otherwise, and the only rav who could have lent this party real standing has answered "no comment" through his own talmid.

Following the gedolim is not a nice idea we hold when it is convenient. It is the center of our lives. It is why we are Charedim and not something else. On October 27, be what you are.

Go and vote Gimmel. Go and vote Shas. Go the way your gedolim told you to go, and take your children to watch you do it, so that they never have to wonder what Abba and Ima would do when someone with a clever slogan asked them to step out of the klal.

Sources

Research note: This article examines publicly documented institutional affiliations as of October 22, 2026. It makes no judgment about any individual's personal religious identity or Torah stature. Where biographical information could not be verified, that is stated. The party and the named rabbanim are welcome to correct any detail, and we will publish the correction.