For the first time in the history of the French parliament, and with a considerable majority, an orthodox Jew, R' Meir Chaviv, has been elected to serve in that national house of representatives. R' Chaviv garnered the votes of hundreds of thousands of French Jewish citizens residing in seven countries who obeyed the call of their rabbonim to choose this representative to serve in the Paris legislature.
Chaviv campaigned strongly for his election to the seat, which is earmarked for a representative of French citizenship in seven countries outside of France, including Israel, Greece, Cyprus and four others in the area. At the very beginning of his campaign, Chaviv went to the homes of HaRav Aharon Leib Shteinman and HaRav Chaim Kanievsky to receive their blessings and mission to act on behalf of the Jewish communities in France scattered throughout Eretz Yisroel and in other countries, and to effect a Kiddush Hashem.
Subsequently, the call was issued from the homes of these gedolim to all those with French voting rights to support Chaviv by duly exercising this right and thereby raising the glory of Hashem. The response was massive and he won with a wide margin against the other contestant, a representative of the party of former French president, Nicholas Sarkosi.
In a moving interview with Yated Ne'eman, Chaviv described his feelings and sense of mission and responsibility regarding his new position. "I saw concretely how everything is in the power of Heaven," he declared. "I intend to visit the gedolim very shortly and receive from them the necessary tools and guidance of how to proceed cautiously, how to avoid chillul Hashem and rather to increase His honor. There is anti-Semitism in France and the government in Paris hosts the chiefs of Moslem murderers without seeing anything wrong in it. There is much work for us to do in transmitting the importance of Jewish identity, the stature of the Jewish people and of the Torah world to the awareness of the public opinion setters in France."
