'Haaretz: Adina Bar Shalom considered running with Moshe Kahlon

May 9, 2014   

The first Haredi member of Knesset? As time passes, it seems that Adina Bar Shalom, the daughter of the Haredi Rabbi Yosef, has marked her next goal for herself: politics. In an interview she gave last week with Sivan Rahav Meir, the Israel Prize winner almost explicitly hinted that this is her next goal. This is after about two weeks ago she also stated in an interview on the Knesset Channel that she was seriously considering the possibility of running in the next Knesset elections. "If they don't allow me to fulfill my life's mission, which is higher education for the Haredi sector, then they will see me in the Knesset," Bar Shalom, the founder of the Haredi College, said at the time. In the same interview, she said that she had previously received requests from various parties, and refused. "But if in order to continue the enterprise I founded I have to go to the Knesset, I will go. I'm thinking about it very seriously." When asked directly whether she would run in the next Knesset elections, she replied: "Yes, unless they interfere with my running the college." However, according to a report in Haaretz, it seems that now she is no longer content with just making inquiries, but is initiating meetings herself. According to Yossi Werter, Bar Shalom, the eldest daughter of the rabbi, who will soon be 70, recently met with former minister Moshe Kahlon, who announced about a month ago his intention to run at the head of a new party in the next elections. Werter reports that the meeting was held at Bar Shalom's initiative, and during the meeting she examined the possibility of running in Kahlon's party. Werter concludes: "If this happens, it could be the final nail in the holey coffin of Shas." Polls published after Kahlon's announcement predicted that he would win 10 seats.