Religious and Political Leadership
Political power is presently vested in the Hasidic rebbes of Ger, Vizhnitz and Belz.
In addition, policy decisions of Agudat Yisrael are ratified by its Council of Torah Sages which includes several other prominent Hasidic leaders and scholars, many being the leading rabbis from the main constituent groups. When participating in government coalitions, the party generally refrains from accepting actual cabinet posts. Its positions on Israeli foreign policy and the Palestinian question has been flexible in the past, since the party formally rejects political secular Zionism and does not view such issues ideologically. Therefore, it has been able to participate in both Likud and Labour led coalitions. In more recent years it has become more sympathetic to the settler movement in the West Bank and thus more security conscious on military issues affecting Israel's survival. Agudat Yisrael supported Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan of 2005.
In 1948, Rabbi Yehuda Meir Abramowicz was appointed as General Secretary.
Rabbi Meir Porush, as well as Yaakov Litzman, and Yisrael Eichler, from the Hasidic courts of Ger and Belz have represented the party in Israel's Knesset recently. Another longtime Agudat MK is Rabbi Shmuel Halpert, a member of the court of Vizhnitz.
Read more about this topic: Agudat Yisrael
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