Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox rabbis fail to heal election split

Leaders of two opposing non-Hasidic, Lithuanian Haredi sects met in Bnei Brak on Sunday in an attempt to unify before next month's elections.

Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman met in his home with Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, head of the "Jerusalem faction" of the Lithuanian stream that has taken an independent course and set up its own political party. The Netzah party is threatening to compete with United Torah Judaism - and is hoping to attract thousands of UTJ's voters - and escalate the split in the Lithuanian community that broke out after the death last summer of the community's leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.

Shteinman and Auerbach met privately, but their followers said no solution has yet been found that would convince either side to set aside the dispute and reunite with the other as part of Degel Hatorah, a separate party but integrated in the UTJ Knesset slate.

Even the meeting itself did not clear the air, as spokesmen for the two rabbis spread conflicting reports of how the meeting came about, with each side trying to paint the other in a bad light.

Another internal threat meant to weaken UTJ is the regular campaign run by the Satmar Hasidic sect and various other offshoots of the anti-Zionist Haredi bloc of the Edah Haredit. Satmar, which is based in the United States, will be pushing for Haredim to boycott the January 22 elections, and is even promising funds to yeshiva heads who instruct their students not to vote. Satmar spokesmen deny media reports that they have offered $100 to whomever refuses to vote and deposits their identity card with the Hasidim to ensure that they can't.