Man on a Mission

Even with nearly three decades of political experience Yitzchak Pindrus still doesn’t consider himself a politician — nor does he come across as one. His demeanor suggests a cross between a mischievous Yerushalmi cheder yingel a self-effacing American gentleman and a shrewd Israeli army commander (Photos: Shlomi Cohen)

T he fall of 2008 found Rabbi Yitzchak Pindrus former mayor of Beitar Illit in the United States fundraising yet again on behalf of the residents of Beitar who had voted him out of office less than a year earlier. When he landed at Ben-Gurion Airport just a few days before Rosh Hashanah his phone rang. A member of Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv’s household was calling to inform him that the posek hador — whose guidance Rabbi Pindrus had followed faithfully since attending his nightly shiur many years earlier — had to speak to him urgently.

Early that afternoon Reb Yitzchak was already seated in the Rav’s home.

At the time Uri Lupoliansky Jerusalem’s chareidi mayor was leaving politics and the leading candidates to replace him as mayor were longtime chareidi politician Meir Porush and nonreligious businessman Nir Barkat.