United Torah Judaism ousts Moshe Gafni after 38 years in major Haredi leadership shak

A major shake-up is underway in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox political leadership following the failure to pass a law exempting Haredi men from military service. Thirty-eight years after he was first elected to the Knesset, Degel HaTorah chairman Moshe Gafni will be left off the party’s election slate, along with another longtime lawmaker, Uri Maklev. MK Yaakov Asher will become the party’s new chairman and will also head the broader United Torah Judaism alliance. Asher, a former mayor of Bnei Brak, was considered a regular visitor to the homes of leading rabbis, most notably the late Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, the former leader of the Lithuanian Haredi community. Shteinman’s grandson, David Shapira, is now a powerful figure in the household of Rabbi Dov Landau, the community’s current spiritual leader, and Asher is also regarded there as a close and loyal ally.