Yes, another blog about elections!  

Ok, I’ve been holding this in, like needing to pee for hours in a long car ride, but one more blog won’t kill you.

Here is some background.
I grew up at a table where people talked politics. All. The. Time.

I hated it. I would sit bored at the Shabbat table until I finally requested we change the subject.

I have always hated politics and I have always stayed away from it, because it was clear that the whole thing was a marionette show with G-d above, probably yodeling. (Congrats if you caught that reference.)

My sister and I joke that when she was 18 she was excited to vote, and when I was 18 I was excited to drink (in Israel), and since then, I have not voted and she has not had a drink. (It’s a joke, kinda.)

And as we approach tomorrow, my head is swimming.

I knew I wanted to vote for Bibi. And although asking someone who they are voting for in America is like asking someone their age or the color of their underwear, here in Israel it’s just a conversation starter. I have been pretty open about the fact that I support Bibi, mainly because even if he’s not the most perfect man (understatement), I believe he is a G-d-fearing Jew, and at least with Bibi, you know what you are getting – there are no “surprises”.  I think he has done a good (enough) job in a position that is IMPOSSIBLE… and the fact that he hasn’t burned out or crashed or gone mental is pretty miraculous. I don’t wish that job on anyone I like – so if I did vote for him, I obviously don’t like him very much. (I wrote this in July 2024, but I am working progress). 

But then I saw this written by Sarah Yocheved Rigler (who I respect deeply)  about Hatzibur HaCharedi.

Then I started following their campaign, a bit.

Then I read these two articles by my friend Raphael Poch: this JPost article and this TOI featured article. (Raphael Poch works in Communications and PR. He has been a journalist, spokesperson, ghostwriter, theater director, and storyteller for 2 decades.)

And it comes down to this.
I don’t want to vote for someone because I don’t want to vote for the other guy.
I don’t want to vote for someone because they will certainly be above the threshold and my vote will be guaranteed.
I don’t want to vote for someone because I have not done enough research or didn’t do my due diligence in learning more.

I want to vote for someone/something I feel passionate about.

So let’s rewind. You might know this, you might not, but I grew up confused religiously. My mother was Baal Teshuva/halachik/Carlebach (but she wore a cowboy hat when I was growing up), my father was/is Chabad, and then they sent me to an uber Yeshivish-Litvish elementary school. Then I went to Bruriah, Darchei Binah – married a Breslover, fell in and got sucked into an extremely charedei world where one day I woke up and my (ex) husband was wearing a shtreimel, I was living on the edge of Mea Shearim, and my son Tzadok had a shaved head, thick payos, and was in a chasidish cheder – (where they made us change his last name from Natan to Neiman because Natan sounded Sefardi. True story. My ex-husband isn’t even Sefardi!) Then after I divorced, I just retreated back to more or less what I was before I got married, found myself again, and hopped around as a single mom to Ramot, then Alon Shvut- where I finally felt aligned to my community. I got remarried, lived in Bat Ayin for a few years, and now I’ve been back in Alon Shvut for 3 years. 

Also important to know. I have 4 sets of uncles and aunts in Israel. My mother’s brother and his family are Reform/traditional and have 3 kids k”h. They live in Haifa. My mother’s sister and her husband live in Ramot, they are charedei, and they have 10 kids k”h. My father’s brother and his wife are uber-charedi-shtark and live in Neve Yaakov. They also have 10 kids k”h. My father’s sister and her husband are Amshinover chassidim and they live in Beitar, and they (you guessed it!) also have 10 kids k”h. I am close with all of them, and today many of my first cousins are grandparents themselves!  I am pretty sure that my son’s bar mitzvah last January was the most concentrated group of chasidim in Alon Shvut, ever. (That is, until the horrible attack on Noam Sohlberg’s family a few montha ago.)

I have excellent relationships with my family. I love and respect them, we live and let live, and we agree to disagree. I show up for their simchas, even if the brit is at 5am at the Amshinover Rebbe’s house in Bayit Vegan, and they show up for mine. I lived charedi, I know charedi, and in some weird kinda backwards wacky way, I sometimes still feel charedi blood running through me. But I’m not. I don’t wear stockings, I live in Alon Shevut, I say Hallel on Yom Ha’atzmaut, I send my kids to Dati Leumi schools, and I am a strong Dati Leumi religious Zionist, and my values align with that.

So why would a non-charedi woman vote charedi?

Because credit needs to be given where credit is due. If we don’t see them, if we don’t acknowledge, validate, support, and even encourage Hatzibur HaCharedi – then how is there ever meant to be change?

We tell the charedim to be different, to acclimate, accommodate, integrate – we get upset that they don’t work, steal government money, and aren’t in Gaza fighting like our 19-year-old sons- and then when a part of them stands up and says “you’re right, we need to change the way we’re doing things,” we come back and say: sorry, but you’ll be under the threshold so it’s a waste of a vote. Realy?!

I am voting Hatzibur HaCharedi.
Why? Because it’s true it might not make a dent in the reality of today, and they might not get a seat. But it’s 100% making a dent for the future and my kids’ future.

I want my vote to not be calculated as if the media’s reports of polls determine the outcomes. I want my vote to be calculated on my values. I want these brave, and yes they are brave, charedim to see that when we ask for them to lean towards us, we will lean towards them as well. Voting for them is me saying: thank you. Voting for them is me saying: I believe in this future. Voting for them is me saying: you don’t have to denounce your charedi-zenship to be in the army, and I don’t have to stay angry when I see clearly that there is a portion of people trying to bridge the difference.

Threshold shmeshold. Let your vote represent something you believe in. My vote isn’t wasted if my vote means something. I want to send a message with my vote. It’s not all about strategy, it’s also about beliefs. (And parties just under the threshold sometimes merge with others – just saying).

I believe Moti Leitner, founder and chairman of HaTzibur HaCharedi, is a salmon, going against the stream, but a trailblazer in his own right. To him I say Kol Hakavod, only 33 and already moving mountains. He sees, as do I, that the Torah world is under unprecedented attack, dropout rates are rising, and families are struggling economically. He says the established Charedei leadership has lost touch with its grassroots. I agree. He also warns of a “head-on collision” between Charedi society and the rest of Israel  and says the solution is a Charedi military framework alongside protecting Torah study. Hear, hear!

And – and maybe this is more impressive – Dr. Nechumi Yaffe is the first woman to run on a Charedi party’s Knesset list, ever! She is part of the Slonim Hasidic community (a community I know well) in Jerusalem. She is a senior faculty member and researcher at Tel Aviv University, in political psychology and public policy. For the past year she has also worked at Harvard on a research project about the Charedi sector. Established Charedi parties like Shas and UTJ have never put a woman on their lists. Her candidacy is a break from that point of view, and party leader Moti Leitner cited her 30 years of work advancing Charedi men and women in welcoming her. Hear, hear!

Yes, I support men (and women) who want to live a life of full-time Torah study if that is what they want and the right fit for their situation, but when people who can’t or don’t want to live that life are encouraged and supported by their rabbanim to join the military or national service- we will be one step closer to peace amongst ourselves. (We have enough enemies out there- do we also need to be enemies?) I support an entire Charedi division in the army, not just one brigade. I support Math and English in Charedi elementary schools, more opportunities for the youth’s future, and housing help for young families. I believe in a broad unity government. Hear, hear!

Bottom line. You didn’t ask for my opinion, and honestly I am not trying to convince you of anything, but at least if you see me at the voting booth you will know: I am voting with passion, not trying to win an impossible chess game for the sake of winning. 

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HaTzibur HaCharedi (The Charedi Public) is a new party founded in July 2026, that presents itself as a moderate alternative to Shas and UTJ.