NAHLAOT, JERUSALEM — The Zooming Etrog found the last remaining member of Meimad, Meir Ben-Oni, walking out of Nahlaot’s heavily Anglo shul Kol Rina after Shacharit on Wednesday morning. Meimad is a left-leaning religious party founded by Rabbi Yehuda Amital in 1999. It is largely considered to be defunct, not having run in this year’s elections nor having held a seat in the Knesset since 2009, under an agreement with Labor.

Commenting on Netanyahu’s projected re-election as prime minister, Ben-Oni said, “Look, we really couldn’t have expected any better. I spent all my energy trying to get my friends to vote for parties that weren’t outright fascists. For some of them, a vote for [Israeli Prime Minister] Bibi [Netanyahu] was a victory.”  

In response to Netanyahu’s statement that video surveillance of Arab polling places was necessary to make sure that the results were “kosher,” Ben-Oni also shared his thoughts.

“I don’t think Bibi should be the mashgiach [kashrut supervisor] of his own elections. And the only time we should be performing video surveillance on the goyim is to make kosher cheese production less economically burdensome by relying on the Rema.¹”  

When asked how this was relevant in Israel, which already has an abundance of kosher cheese and Jews to add rennet, Ben-Oni replied that he had made aliyah from the United States fairly recently, in response to the election of Donald Trump. But after having lived here for the last two years, he is starting to plan a move back to America.

“Since I’m planning my return, I guess I’ve started thinking of halakhic questions from that frame of reference again,” he said.  

“My sal klita [economic assistance] has run out, and the other benefits for olim hadashim are starting to expire now too, so I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to stay here,” Ben-Oni continued. “Not that I can say I’m looking forward to explaining my move back. There was no critical discussion about Israeli politics in my community back home — the closest we came was going to AIPAC conferences whenever we could get the cost subsidized.”

“Even when I did a gap year in yeshiva before college, we didn’t talk much about politics. Except for maybe that time Rav [Hershel] Schachter visited us and explained under what circumstances someone should shoot the prime minister.²”    

“I didn’t realize this until I moved here with the intention of staying permanently, but basically, this place is f***ed.”

1. The prevalent opinion is that a Jew must add rennet for cheese to be kosher. However, according to the Rema, a Jew merely needs to watch the rennet be added. Some modern authorities have allowed video oversight to supplement in-person oversight. For further discussion of this issue, see here and here.
2. “YU Rabbi Apologizes for anti-Olmert Jab,” The Jerusalem Post, March 10, 2008