Avi Blumenthal and Mani Hadad, owners of the Blumenthal Hadad Representation and Communications firm, a firm located at the top of the Haredi sector's PR firms, were given the management of the Haredi information headquarters at the Ministry of Health about a year and a half ago, at the beginning of the second wave.
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This case, which many PR professionals in the sector have been keeping an eye on, placed the two campaigners at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus, and later in a stubborn frontal battle against the spreaders of 'fake news' about vaccines.
Working in the Ministry of Health's Haredi Information Headquarters presented Blumenthal & Hadad with an unprecedented challenge: being part of an international crisis information system, while focusing on a population with unique characteristics - which requires them to be constantly creative, and above all, to work hard.
The ministry's activities, which are reflected mainly on bulletin boards in Haredi neighborhoods, and in publications and articles on websites, newspapers, and radio, also include meetings with rabbis, businesspeople, and community leaders, aimed at promoting the fight against the coronavirus.
The mobilization of the Haredi public during the launch of the vaccination campaign, as well as the reduction in the level of confrontations with the police, is attributed to the intensive activity conducted by the two behind the scenes, recruiting media outlets and leading opinion leaders to create a sympathetic public opinion.
Blumenthal and Hadad, both of whom have extensive experience in the field of written and digital media, have been responsible in recent years for numerous media moves, investigations, and cases that have been widely covered in the Haredi and general media.
Haddad served as a parliamentary assistant and communications advisor to former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Eli Yishai. Blumenthal, a lawyer by training, worked at the advertising agency Bolton Potential, served as communications advisor to Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, and later managed the election campaign for the Jerusalem rabbinate of Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar.
The successful match between the two was created when they met during the election campaign of the 'Yachad' party, led by Eli Yishai, in 2015. Blumenthal coordinated the media spokespersons in the Haredi sector at the headquarters.
The party did not pass the threshold by a few thousand votes, but the joint work on the campaign created the partnership between the two.
They first operated as a department in the office of communications consultant Ronen Tzur, where they managed crisis cases in the Haredi sector, and a year later they spread their wings and founded Blumenthal-Hadad Representation and Communications.
Among their many clients are commercial companies, political figures, rabbis, associations, lawyers, kosher bodies, Hasidic courts, and private entities who sought to conduct struggles, improve their image, and create public opinion.
The two, who quickly rose to the top of the Haredi sector's PR offices, specialize in challenging cases that require creative thinking and in-depth familiarity with the Haredi media and its methods of operation.
In addition, the two have a special wing that specializes in 'guerrilla warfare', igniting street wars, initiating ground battles, and a host of means aimed at creating manipulations and leverage to achieve goals.
Despite all their experience, this year they found themselves in situations that no campaign manager could have prepared for in advance. One of them occurred on Lag BaOmer. In parallel with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Transportation also recruited them to discuss the transportation system for the Rashbi celebration, all the preparations and logistics involved, and to provide informational support for the dispersal process of the immigrants to Zion as they returned home.
Near midnight, the Ministry of Transportation's Criminal Investigation Department held a joint discussion with the police, expressing satisfaction with the operation, which proceeded according to plan, and the proper flow of the transportation system.
At that moment, Blumenthal & Hadad could not have imagined that in a short time they would have to stop their PR work and put on their hats as crisis managers, when tens of thousands wanted to leave Meron at once, while the police blocked the roads in order to allow ambulances to pass - and hundreds of buses waited empty and tried to make their way to parking lots that had been prepared in advance.
Fortunately for them, the Ministry of Transportation quickly took control of the chaos, and the two men's job was to convey the message to the public - about turning the Karmiel train station into a dispersal terminal. Dozens of trains, capable of carrying hundreds of passengers, made the evacuation operation a resounding success, with as early as 8:00 a.m. not a single person left on Mount Meron among those who wanted to return home.
Among the prominent cases handled in recent years was the poultry injection crisis, which severely damaged the poultry sales of the 'Urdu community'; the 'Father of the Get Refusing to Get Delayed in Israel' affair, which only recently ended with the granting of the get; and raising public awareness of the population of disabled children.
