1. ‫בסייעתא דשמיא‬
‫‪Keeping Kedushas‬‬
‫!‪Yerushalayim‬‬
‫‪Vote‬‬
‫יהדות התורה‬
‫דת ישראל - דגל התורה‬
‫אגו‬
‫01 ‪WE NEED YOU TO MAKE IT‬‬
‫יהדות התורה‬
‫אגודת ישראל - דגל התורה‬

2. Making a difference at
the Jerusalem municipal
elections
If you are a resident of Jerusalem, owner or renter, you’ll
soon be receiving a distinctive lavender-colored rectangular
envelope in the mail emblazoned with the official-looking
lion seal of the City of Jerusalem. This is the Arnona, the city
property tax, and when you’ll remove the perforated seals
and peer inside, you’ll see that you owe the City of Jerusalem
something in the order of several thousand shekels. For most
of us this would be a disaster if not for the significant discounts
the city currently offers to those who can prove they don’t
earn enough.
I say currently because it’s not yet clear weather these
discounts will continue. According to Rabbi Yosef Deutch,
a member of the Jerusalem Municipal Council, whether
or not the city will continue
to offer that discount in the
upcoming five years depends
upon how many members of
the Gimmel party are voted in
at the Tuesday, October 22nd
Municipal elections. And that in
turn depends upon how many
religious Jerusalem residents
come out to cast their ballots.
facilities were needed – badly – and as these are religious
neighborhoods, the knock came to the door of the Gimmel
party members on the Council.
Ramot resident Moshe Cohen explains “Rav Pindrus, Rav
Kellerman, and Rav Gura [of the Gimmel party] pushed the
whole thing through.They cleared the red tape.They found the
money for us. They put up new buildings for those children.”
Cohen tells of a time when Ramot was filling with garbage.
”No one was cleaning Ramot. The cars couldn’t go in and
the whole neighborhood was filthy. There are a lot of small
alleyways, so the city was saying ‘It’s private property; we won’t
clean it” But it wasn’t private property; it was public. It was
Yossi Deutch [of the Gimmel party] who got them to send in
workers to clean it up.”
These are only a handful
of stories picked from a
rich legacy of hard work on
behalf of religious Jerusalem
residents. “Each of the council
members has an average of
30 to 40 requests for help
per day,” said Rabbi Yitzchak
Pindrus, Deputy Mayor. “We
help people get permission
“People need to
to extend their buildings, to
understand”
deal with bureaucracy, to pay
taxes, to solve Chinuch issues.
R’ Deutch said in an interview
The more seats we occupy, the
with Yerushalayim Shelanu, “that Rabbi Yitzchak Pindrus (L) and Rabbi Yossi Deutch (R), senior members of more money we have available,
in the upcoming elections, it will the Jerusalem City Council
and therefore the more power and influence we have to get
be decided whether they are going to be able to come down
things done on behalf of the religious community.”
to the Municipality and get a discount on property taxes as
it has been until now, or if they will be [as the saying goes,]
In the Board Room
‘tossed down the stairs’.”
“Help us make the minyan”, the campaign slogan of the
What do they do for you?
Gimmel party, doesn’t refer to shacharis or mincha. Rather, R’
Pindrus explains, it means that if there will be enough votes
Like many Anglos, I have an image in my mind of politicians
for Gimmel, then Gimmel will be allowed two more members
as slick, baby-kissing manipulators interested only in their own
on the board. Combined with the other religious parties, that
power. In researching what the Gimmel party has done for
the residents of Jerusalem however, a very different image
will make a majority coalition of religious members.
has emerged – that of humble public servants whose sole
For the past five years, the number of Gimmel members, eight,
interest in power is in order to be able to better help their
constituents.
have left the religious faction just short of a coalition. For that
reason, when the Mayor and anti-religious members of the
Take, for example, the cases of the overflow of school-aged
committee have spent the budget in ways that are antithetical
children in the Har Nof and Ramot neighborhoods. New
to Torah, the religious members have been powerless to stop it.
Keeping Kedushas Yerushalayim!

3. “Three months ago,” explains R’ Pindrus, “they succeeded
in opening a tourist center at the old train station, with
restaurants and events – all running on Shabbos.” Referring
to the scheduled opening of a giant multi-screen Cinema City
movie complex that would also run on Shabbos, R’ Pindrus
says “If we will, with Hashem’s help, be able to secure another
two seats, we can prevent this from happening, and we may
even be able to overturn what they’ve done already … they
won’t even come up to the city hall with ideas like that.”
“What they’re trying to do by opening this old train station
What is the Jerusalem Municipality all
about?
Concentrated in Safra Square near the geographic center of the city, the Municipality of Jerusalem
serves approximately 801,000 residents. Education,
culture, health, social, infrastructure, water and sanitation are among the areas under the Municipality’s
jurisdiction. A hotline that handles all complaints
relevant to the city is in continuous service and can
be reached at Moked 106.
Political power is distributed, through a system of
checks and balances, among the Mayor, the City
Council, and the National Ministry of the Interior.
The main sources of income for the city are property taxes, payments for use of services, tolls, income from assets and grants from the central government. In 2011, a total of 2,271 individuals made
Aliyah to Jerusalem.
How do the municipal elections work?
When are the elections? This year, municipal elections will be held on Tuesday 22 October, 2013.
They will not take place again for another five years.
immigrant you respect is the one who attempts to
understand the American people and culture and get
center on Shabbos,” says Rabbi Shmuel Machlis, Political
Consultant to Gimel, “is to create a whole new non-religious
demographic in Jerusalem. A community starts small and
expands, and that’s what they have in mind.”
More Power to them
As approximately 1,500 new English speaking Olim fill
Jerusalem’s streets each year, the voice of the English-speaking
community continues to rise, and the public servants like
Rabbi Yitzchak Pindrus continue to answer the call.
“For the English-speaking community,” R’ Pindrus said, “we
opened up subsidized English-speaking Ganim. We want to
put more money towards things that will benefit the English
speaking community. There are two American members [of
Gimel] on the council, myself and Rabbi Halberstam. We’re
here to help.”
As one insightful immigrant noted, “In America, the Chinese
A boys school in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem, that was
built thanks to the efforts of the Gimmel Party
involved.” Similarly, each English speaking resident in Israel
has a unique contribution to make, one which can be felt
this upcoming October 22nd at the Jerusalem Municipal
elections.
Keeping Kedushas Yerushalayim!

4. "Meet the Minyan"
Our ten men are known, through years of selfless public service, as accessible to the individual and willing and able to help the community, in strict adherence to the words of our Rabbanim, Shlita.
With enough votes for the Gimmel party cast this coming Tuesday October 22, our men will be empowered to fill ten seats on the Jerusalem Municipal Council and thereby form an “invincible coalition” with
the members of the other religious parties. Only if we have at least ten seats, will they be able to fully
protect the values of the Torah-loyal residents of Jerusalem from the efforts of the anti-religious members of the Council.
1
Yitzchak Ze’ev Pindrus
-42 years old, Resident of the Jewish Quarter
-Deputy Mayor & Former Mayor of Beitar Illit
-Chairman of the Gimmel Party
-Outstanding spokesman of Torah-true
Judaism
-Personable, accessible, fluent English
speaker
-Head of Department of Sanitation and
Department of Chareidi Education
-Vast expertise in budgetary bylaws
to combat anti-religious initiatives and
successfully obtaining urgently needed
funding for Torah causes
-Directly responsible for the building
of hundreds of additional classrooms
throughout the city
-Graduate of Aderet Eliyahu (Zilberman)
-Sourced vast funding and oversaw the
infrastructure works to improve and
transform the Geula, Zichron Moshe
and Keren Avraham neighborhoods
-Allocated 200 million Shekels for
building and repair of streets and
public parks all over the city
-Responsible for thousands of building
and addition licenses including more
than 1,600 new housing units in Ramat
Shlomo alone
-Oversaw the approval of thousands
of housing units throughout Jerusalem
-Handles hundreds of requests
regarding construction, taxes, and
other issues every single month
-Member of AgudathYisroel and District
Planning and Building Committee
3
Yisroel Kelerman
2
Yosef Deutch
-Seven years of experience working
for us in the municipality
-Head of Department of Infrastructure
Keeping Kedushas Yerushalayim!
-More than 20 years of experience in
the Jerusalem Municipality
-Served for 13 years as Assistant to
R’ Uri Maklev, former Deputy Mayor of
Jerusalem
-Senior advisor to R’ Uri Lupolianski,
Former Jerusalem Mayor
-Deputy Chairman of the Planning and
Building Committee
-Handles hundreds of inquiries a
month in all fields and specializes in the
area of apartment expansions
-Instrumental in allocation of two
million shekels for building and
expansion of religious facilities
-Musmach of Yeshivas Ponovitch and
Ateres Yisroel
4
Yochanan Weitzman
-Son of the Dayan Reb Yosef Meyer
Weizmann Shlita and noted Talmid
Chacham in his own right, served as
Rosh Kollel in Jerusalem’s “Ner Aryeh”
Kollel
-Well known as someone who helps
anyone who turns to him
-Vast experience and well known
expert in “Children at Risk” issues
-Successful
businessman
with
reputation of being scrupulous in
monetary halachos
-Member of Agudath Yisroel in
Jerusalem
-Uses a balanced approach that
encourages self-sufficiency as well as
expressing compassion for those in
difficult situations
-Grandson of “Ba’al haSulam” and of

5. R’ Elazar Hendeles, renowned activist
and founder of the Chareidi suburbs of
Ashdod and Tel Aviv
5
Michel Helberstam
-Fluent English speaker & known as a
“man of action” who knows how to
get things done, and as a man of great
compassion
-Among the founders and builders
of Kiryat Belz in Jerusalem & Ashdod
communities
-Trusted confidant of the Admor of
Belz Shlit”a - in getting issues put on
the public agenda
-Works hard for the needs of the
individual and the community.
6
Eliezer Rauchberger
-Chairman of the Community Council
in Har Nof
-Known as the “right hand man” of the
Degel HaTorah faction in the Knesset
-Senior reporter for Hebrew Yated
Ne’eman & Shluchei d’Rabannan to
the public
-Instrumental in the building of
synagogues and Battei Medrash
-Dedicated to the dissemination of
Torah and Torah ideals
-Deeply dedicated and involved in
the care and upkeep of eiruvin and
mikvaos
-Vast experience in the kashrus field
-Musmach of Hebron Yeshiva in Givat
Mordechai
7
Ya’akov Halperin
-Chairman of the Agudath Yisroel in
Jerusalem
-Known to give personal attention to
all sectors, without bias
-Head of Infrastructure Development
and Public Lighting Department
-Serves on the Finance, Conservation
and Land Distribution Committees
-Known as a loyal supporter to Torah
Institutions
-Official Chabad Rabbi in Jerusalem
8
Shlomo Rosenshtein
-Served for 12 years as Principal of
Beit HaSefer haTorani in Jerusalem
-Heavily involved in outreach
-Serves already for 17 years as editor
of popular weekly newsletter Misaviv
laShulchan
-Member of boards of “Dirshu”
and“‘Acheinu ‘
-Author of Haparsha haMechanechet
and eight volumes of Chizuk
-Served for two tenures as Chairman
of the Jerusalem Municipality Support
Committee, funding educational
institutions, social welfare institutions
and chesed organizations
-Responsible for the new bus lines
that serve Northern Jerusalem
neighborhoods
-Vizhnitz Chassid & musmach of
PonovitchYeshiva and Kolel Toras
Moshe
9
Moshe Goreh
-Resident of Sanhedriya Murchevet &
among the founders of the Mishkan
Esther synagogue
-Principal of Yeshivat Beit Shmuel,
Jerusalem
-Senior advisor and supporter of Degel
HaTorah party since its inception
-Known as “the address” to turn to for
help
-Musmach of Ponovitch Yeshiva
10
Shmuel Miller
-33 years old, Head of the Yeshivas
Kovno in Jerusalem
-Founder and chairman of ‘Da’as –
Merkazei T’chvina v’hachana” which
assists children of Kollel families who
are struggling in the education world
and need professional help, support
and guidance
-Head of “M’vakshei Hashem” working
in promting the education and care of
teenagers on the fringe
-Board member of Degel haTorah,
Jerusalem
-Helped with various infrastructure
needs of the Chareidi community
and strengthened Torah growth in
Jerusalem in the past few years
-Heavily involved with Department of
“Economic Growth and Chesed” in
Jerusalem.
-Member of the local Community
Council of Givat Shaul, Kiryat Moshe,
Mordot, Bayit Vegan and Givat
Mordechai
-Graduate of Hebron Knesset Yisroel
Yeshiva
Keeping Kedushas Yerushalayim!

6. SPEAKING WITH
"GIMMEL" LEADERSHIP
Rabbi Pindrus, What do you see as
the main difference between your job
serving the public [as Mayor] in Beitar
Illit and your job serving the public in
Jerusalem?
It’s essential to understand that there is a significant
difference between [Jerusalem and] religious cities
like Beitar Illit, Modi’in Illit, etc. When I served in
Beitar, I was free to operate and lead according
to the policies that were amenable to the entire
city, because the staff of the government was
comprised of people like you and me – those
who fear Hashem – which in turn reflected the
attitude of the rest of the city.
In Jerusalem, our work as part of the religious
faction is much more complex and sensitive
because we are working opposite other sectors.
[In Jerusalem,] if each one of us will not be
concerned for the strength of the religious faction
and its power to act, then it will be, challilah, like
we are shooting ourselves in the legs.”
Rabbi Deutch, do you feel the religious
sector of the city is involved enough in
the Municipality, or do you feel they
should be more involved?
“I feel it’s important that I speak openly. As
of this moment, I do indeed see a spirit of
volunteerism spreading, but I still don’t see the
necessary passion; there exist alarming islands
of indifference in our community. It is important
for people to realize and understand that we are
up against tycoons who are pouring out money
like water. One of them ran a campaign under
the slogan ‘Free Jerusalem from Chareidization’.
They use alarmism and intimidation; everything
is Kosher in their eyes. To our great dismay, at
this moment, not every Jerusalem resident from
our camp is aware of and concerned about the
Keeping Kedushas Yerushalayim!
terrible danger that’s facing us. I’m not just hyping
up the issue. These are facts about which Rabbi
Pindrus and I, as the heads of the Gimmel party,
are knowledgeable and concerned.”
Who votes?
You are eligible to vote if you are at least 17 years
old on the day of elections, registered as a Jerusalem resident, either as a ‫ תושב‬or as a holder of
a ‫ ,תעודת זהות‬by September 12, 2013. (Note: holders of a student visa are not permitted to vote).
Additionally, you must not have been registered
as a resident at a different address (in a different
municipal district) that had elections in the past
18 months.
Where to vote?
Each voter is sent a “voter notification” (‫הודעה‬
‫ / לבוחר‬hoda’a l’bocher) which tells you the address of your polling place, whether it is handicapped-accessible, and hours of operation. Soldiers, active and called-up reservists, can vote at
their bases. Handicapped individuals can vote at a
handicapped-accessible polling place (call 1-800800-508 for a list), even if it is not their assigned
polling place.
What to Bring?
A valid, unexpired photo Identification: the only
acceptable options are an Israeli identification
card (‫ / תעודת זהות‬teudat zehut), an Israeli driver’s
license, and an Israeli passport.
How to Vote?
You will cast two separate ballots, one for Mayor
and a second for a list of candidates for city council. You will choose a yellow slip of paper for your
choice for Mayor, which you will put in a yellow
envelope and drop in the box. You will choose a
white slip of paper for a list of candidates for City
Council, which you will put in a white envelope
and drop in the box.

7. ‫בסייעתא דשמיא‬
Want someone
who listens ?
Constantly working on making the City
Council more accessible to you, Gimmel
is committed to addressing the needs and
concerns of all Jerusalem residents.
Gimmel is dedicated to our community by:
Preserving Arnona discounts
Improving infrastructure
Upgrading school facilities
Supporting Chessed organizations
Creating jobs
‫יהדות התורה‬
‫אגודת ישראל - דגל התורה‬
On October 22, every vote counts!

8. W ho do we vote for ?
Rabbi Yitzchak Berkovits
Sanhedria HaMurchevet 113/27
Jerusalem, Israel 97707
02-5813847
‫יצחק שמואל הלוי ברקוביץ‬
‫ראש רשת הכוללים לינת הצדק‬
113/27 ‫סנהדרי’ה המורחבת‬
‫ירושלם ת“ו‬
Yerushalaim, 13 Cheshvan, 5774
Dear Friends lay”t,
This Tuesday, Yud Cheis b’Cheshvan, municipal elections are scheduled to be held in
Yerushalaim, and your participation is important.
A strong representation on the city council means that our needs will be considered by the
municipality. A weaker representation leaves us with little hope of the allocation of resources for
the growing needs of our sector. In the balance is the allocation of land for mikvaos, yeshivos, shuls,
ganim, schools and community centers. This election could determine whether our neighborhoods
will be allowed to expand, or if construction permits for the Charedi public will be buried in the
bureaucracy. Will anyone take interest in the maintenance of our roads, cleanliness of our streets,
and the providing of parks for our children to play in? Not to mention funding for ganim and subsidies
for talmudei Torah, schools and educational projects.
And above all, who will determine the image of Yerushalaim, the heart of our people? Will we
witness Chas v’sholom the further secularization of the Ir Hakodesh, or will Yerushalaim serve as a
spiritual light to all Yidden?
In the past few years, our representatives have bravely protected the rights of the chutznik
tzibbur in the educational system, and are certainly deserving of our support.
To our dismay, this upcoming election also includes a challenge to the leadership of the Olam
haTorah. Your vote is crucial in standing up for the stability and stature of the position of manhig
hador. Every ballot cast for “GIMMEL” is a statement of support for our manhigim.
Many of you who are not Israeli citizens may be erroneously assuming that you do not have
the right to vote. I strongly urge that you check with local representatives to determine whether or
not you can vote.
May we be zocheh to siyata diShmaya in caring for the future of our community, and live to
see the rebuilding of Yerushalaim and the Geula Sheleimah bimheira.
, ‫בברכה‬
‫יהדות התורה‬
‫אגודת ישראל - דגל התורה‬