Opinion & Comment
An Open Letter

Mr. Ehud Olmert

25th April 2003

Dear Mr. Olmert

I am not sure whether you remember me. I was Mayor of the London Borough of Hackney between 1997 and 2001 -- a record length of time for an English Borough. During that period I had the pleasure of visiting you in the Jerusalem's Mayoral Parlor.

As I am a chareidi Jew we exchanged reflections about our respective activities and about the impact which our mayoralty had on our religious citizens. You prided yourself in keeping a healthy balance between opposing political factions in Jerusalem and the good relationship which existed between you and the chareidi Community. You even acknowledged the fact that it was the chareidi vote which was largely instrumental in piloting you into the exalted position of Mayor of the Holy City.

You cannot therefore imagine my utter surprise, pain and incredulity when I heard in recent months the extent to which you have actively turned against the very people who have enabled you to climb to the top of the political ladder.

In a moment of honest assessment you will surely agree that you would not be a Cabinet Minister today had you not been Mayor of Jerusalem, and you would not have been Mayor of Jerusalem had it not been for the thousands of chareidim who voted for you.

Why then, Mr. Olmert, are you the Minister who has joined hands with Shinui's Mr. Tommy Lapid, whose political agenda is exclusively to hurt chareidim and uproot everything that Judaism stands for?

Why must you blow into the same shofar as the man who unashamedly declared in public (pre-election article in Jewish Chronicle) that he eats on Yom Kippur -- a statement which no self-respecting Jew, of whatever political or religious persuasion, would make in public in Chutz La'aretz?

Why, on the first day of taking over your Ministry, did you decide not to interfere with businessmen who wanted to open on Shabbos and not send non-Jewish inspectors to levy fines for violation of the laws regarding work and rest hours?

Why do you support mixed marriages in the Holy Land which can only result in the destruction of Klal Yisroel's national structure?

Why do you support legislative and administrative measures which will cause dire hardship to many thousands of chareidi families -- precisely the people who brought you to power?

Where is your hakoras hatov? Where is your menshlichkeit? And above all, where is your understanding that Klal Yisroel without Toras Yisroel has no mandate to be in Eretz Yisroel?

Please remember, Mr. Olmert, that the paths of teshuva are never closed and unless you want to go down in Jewish History as a partner of Tommy Lapid whose only aim is to destroy the time hallowed national fabric of Klal Yisroel -- I appeal to you as one who loves Eretz Yisroel, to mend your ways and persuade your colleagues in Government to revert to the status-quo which was in operation ever since the establishment of the State of Israel.

If you fear that this course of action will make you unpopular among some of your political colleagues, allow me to remind you of the old saying that it needs courage to be unpopular.

Yours sincerely,

Joe Lobenstein, M.B.E.

Vice President, Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations

Vice Chairman, Agudas Yisroel Organizations of Great Britain.

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