Hundreds of both traditional and completely secular Jews stated their readiness during the recent campaign to vote for the United Torah Jewry party for the first time.
This new trend is evident mainly among groups who have come into contact with Rabbi Gafni through the Knesset Finance Committee where his intervention as Chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee saved manufacturing plants from closure and workers from dismissal. Thanks to his connections with the Treasury as the committee chairman, these companies were able to receive financial aid - in some cases aid that had actually been promised to them but not delivered. Then there were many who were exposed to his fine altruistic work and are interested in repaying him and the public he represents their debt of gratitude.
"When I received the call from Gafni, It was Like I Won the Lottery."
One of the outstanding workers in this area is Shachar Shkouri, a past high ranking army officer who today runs a business with his wife.
Shkouri's story begins when he tried to negotiate with the income tax authorities regarding his tax liability. He argued, justifiably, that he works and his wife works in the business and all the income should be reckoned as if it were earned by two people as it really was. Despite this simple and obvious logic, the tax authorities told him that a couple working together is not considered a partnership, since the government suspects they that all such couples are lying in order to get the tax break for a fictitious worker. Therefore they instituted a categorical refusal to allow a married couple to consider their income as earned by two people, and they have to pay the higher rate as if it were earned by only one of them.
The stunned Shkouri approached one MK after another, only to hear that they were in the same boat, and that a couple working together pays taxes as if there were only one salary earned by one of them from the profits. In this way, couples can sometimes be forced to pay hundreds of thousands of shekalim a year more than their true liability. Shkouri refused to capitulate and organized a support group of hundreds of members, each of whom work with their wives in a family business, in order to protest the injustice.
Shkouri is not ashamed of the fact that he voted for a chareidi party for the first time in his life. "As an army officer and owner of a business, one who is completely secular," he declared before the elections, "I intend to take the slip with Gimmel and vote for that party with all my heart. I am the head of a group of hundreds of people who will follow me for the same reason. Gafni fought for us and we need him in the Knesset."
An additional exceptional letter of support from this group was written by a businessman named Shai Pinchas, who states: "I will never forget the first time I met Rabbi Gafni in the Finance Committee. I was asked to address the group in a hearing he had called for. Gafni recognized my name and remembered every detail of the letter I had sent him. Furthermore, he even corrected me on one of the things I said in the committee that didn't conform with the letter. Show me another Finance Committee chairman who reads every single letter sent to him by citizens and remembers them down to the smallest detail! When I heard Rabbi Gafni dwelling on our issue, I was deeply moved and saw before me an honest, decent and brilliant man who is guided by the value of justice. I know that after that meeting, I felt relieved and knew that I was not alone in the battle and that there were Knesset Members who did their job faithfully. In addition, he helped me in a personal matter as well regarding a foreclosure notice I had received. It is only in his merit that I began to believe in the political setup, and therefore, my vote will surely go to him." And together with him, hundreds of other families voice similar sentiments.
Rabbi Uri Maklev, also of the Degel Hatorah faction in UTJ, also has a well-earned reputation for helping. One of the letters sent to Rabbi Maklev's office by one of the thousands of citizens who were present at different sessions of his committee, reads as follows, "As one who participated in a meeting which took place today, I would like to thank you for the manner in which you conducted it. As a totally secular person, I must admit that I was extremely impressed by your sensitivity towards others, your attentiveness and your concern for the public. I was equally impressed by the way you conducted it, by the awareness and faith that enable you to deal with an issue in a most efficient way. You deserve my full esteem, as you are definitely a loyal and suitable representative after my own heart. I am filled with appreciation for your work. I will feel a sense of mission to place the Gimmel ballot in the ballot box so that you be able to continue your work for the public benefit."
Rabbi Maklev, who was awarded a certificate of honor by the Israel Institute for Democracy for his outstanding functioning in the Knesset, was also awarded by organizations for the handicapped who praised his efforts to the press, declaring that he has become a hallmark of chessed and public service in the Knesset. One of the MKs even went so far as to say that had he not been a candidate for the Knesset for his party himself, he would support the UTJ party so that Rabbi Maklev could serve another term. "If only there were some more `Maklevim' like him," he said, and he was right.
Letters piled up in the office of the deputy Health Minister, Rabbi Litzman, as well, from families who were helped by his many reforms and by the individual attention he gave to so many, which resulted in a tremendous Kiddush Hashem amongst the public at large, and promises of votes for the UTJ platform.
Sad to say, in spite of the blessed trend, these few hundred votes of the secular public are surely encouraging but this won't have a strong impact on the final mandates which the party will garner. Nevertheless, they are a positive sign that the people in general are drawing much nearer to Jewish tradition and are not wary of voting for a religious party, once they are exposed to the blessed work of the party's representatives.
The Pri HaGalil plant was on the verge of closing because the government had shaken off any responsibility by refusing to transfer money that it owed to it. Despite stormy sessions in the Knesset and in the public world, heavy chains were placed on its gates and the workers were all laid off. Motty Haziza, chairman of the workers' committee, who had already met with Rabbi Gafni during the course of the battle, entered Gafni's office and wept. "Hundreds of families have lost their source of livelihood. Help me, Rabbi Gafni!"
He later described the ensuing chain of events to the press. "Gafni got up from his desk and said, `Wait for me here.' He then went out and burst into the Prime Minister's office without an appointment, returning to his office half an hour later, spoke to me and informed me that it would be reopened."
"Where can you find people like that?" he declared, when he hosted Rabbi Gafni on the premises of the plant.
With regard to his help for individuals, Rabbi Gafni says that he learned this from his rebbi and master, HaRav Shach. "When I was chosen to serve as the deputy Minister of Religions, I went and asked him what to do and what was expected of me. I expected him to tell me to do my best to get money for the Torah world and see to it that the yeshivos are not discriminated against. But in fact he said, `If you tell me that you were able to transfer several millions to the yeshivos, these figures will have no significance for me; they are too large. But if you tell me that you helped a widow who had a foreclosure on her house and that this was her whole life, know that it was for this very purpose that you were chosen.'"
