The Jerusalem Faction, together with several rabbis and activists, proposed that the Ger Hasidic movement withdraw from United Torah Judaism and establish a party taking a hard line against military conscription.
From their perspective, the advantage is the potential addition of another Knesset seat from people who currently do not vote in elections.
Babchik met with them late Thursday night but rejected the proposal. Instead, he suggested that they support United Torah Judaism, since they are essentially aligned in their opposition to conscription.
Only over the weekend, the Haredi media reported that United Torah Judaism would run solely as a technical bloc, and that Gafni is expected to split from Agudat Yisrael immediately after the elections.
Participants in Thursday’s meeting at the home of Jerusalem Faction member Eliyahu Goldstoff included Babchik representing Ger; the son of Sephardi Rabbi Buaron; Rabbi Yitzhak Rabin, head of a rabbinical court in Bnei Brak and one of the senior rabbis of Tel Aviv’s Bukharian community; Yaakov Chaim Miller, a hard-line activist from the Lelov Hasidic movement; and additional activists.