The full story behind Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky’s supposed support for voting in the WZO election

By Rabbi Sholom Kamenetsky, son of Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky

Rabbi Lerner approached my father and asked him to support voting in the WZO. My father refused. But he said that he would think about it, since it seemed to be a very serious matter.

Rabbi Lerner sent another delegation to my father to pressure him again to support his organization. But my father was still not comfortable with the idea. In the meantime, Rabbi Lerner called my father again to tell him that Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky also agreed to support his project to join the WZO because there is a great need to save the holy places in Eretz Yisroel, etc. But my father said again and again that he was very hesitant. And he explained, when asked, that voting for this organization, even for all the good reasons in the world, is a very big chiddush.

We asked Reb Naftoli Weinberger to get in touch with Reb Chaim Kanievsky’s household to find out if he really said this or not. He spoke to them, mainly with Reb Chaim’s son, Reb Shaul, and they confirmed that Reb Chaim had indeed told them that one should vote as a hora’as shaah, a temporary measure. We asked to get this in writing. But they said, we cannot give this out in writing because it’s only a hora’as shaah, a temporary measure. And it’s very dangerous to have Reb Chaim’s signature being passed around in a way that could be used in the wrong place later.

My father was not satisfied with this, and he pressured Reb Chaim’s household again to send this ruling in writing to a person whom the Kanievsky family could rely upon. He would show this written letter to my father, but not leave it in our hands so that it should not get passed around.

At first the Kanievsky household agreed to this idea, and they planned to send the written reply to their trustworthy friend, Rabbi A. Yosef Stern. But in the end, they changed their mind and decided against it.

Then my father decided that he himself would write a letter to Reb Chaim, and then certainly they would make sure that Reb Chaim would send back a reply in writing to certify his ruling. My father wrote the following letter:

To the honor of our teacher, the greatest of the generation, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky shlita.

We heard in the Rav’s name a temporary measure ruling to join in the elections of the WZO in order to protect the holy matters of the Jewish people. Now there are those who raise concerns that this goes against the mesorah from the gedolim of previous generations to distance ourselves from them and from their ideologies and not to involve ourselves in Zionist institutions. Additionally, in order to vote in these elections, one must register as a member and declare belief in their platform in all matters related to Zionism.

This raises concerns of chillul Hashem. Therefore, some are sowing doubt, perhaps the Rav did not give such a ruling or perhaps he relied on others. Since this matter concerns the Jewish people, we seek to clarify the Rav’s view. Is it correct that the Rav’s view is that it is worthwhile to participate in the above-mentioned elections to protect and save the holy matters of the Jewish people? Or should one refrain from doing so?

With great respect, Shmuel Kamenetsky.

I have the letter in my possession. There followed conversations back and forth, until we heard that Reb Chaim had received my father’s letter. And we spoke to the Kanievsky family, and they said that Reb Chaim had replied and said, “Correct, one must vote.”

[This was the psak of Reb Chaim that was publicized in 2020 during the prior WZO election.]

We made all efforts to get this letter written to prove that he actually said one must vote. But still, Reb Chaim’s children and household did not want to send it. My father pressured them much more until they agreed to send the written reply through Rabbi A. Yosef Stern.

And he eventually brought a copy of this to my father. Yes, it was a copy of a handwritten reply. But it was impossible to read. And what they claimed he had said was definitely not what was written there. It was simply illegible. And even when we magnified it many, many times, it was impossible to read. My father’s disappointment was terrible. I still remember the face he made when he saw the handwritten reply.

[This is the scribble published in the 2025 ads for Eretz Hakodesh, supposedly saying יש לעשות כנ”ל – one should do as above.]

When my father was asked why he didn’t now speak out against WZO, he replied, after it [the psak of Reb Chaim] has already been published, especially by Eckstein, the assistant to Rabbi Eliyahu Brudny, he didn’t want to do anything that would cause the household of Reb Chaim to seem unreliable in people’s eyes, because this would embarrass the entire family, including Reb Chaim himself. Therefore, he was silent.

[This is the end of Rabbi Sholom’s letter. The above story paved the way for a community-wide crime on a scale never seen before: the cruel publication of a false rumor claiming that Reb Chaim had permitted, as a temporary measure, to declare and to recognize as true the terrible words of kefirah, to turn one’s back on the mesorah from the gedolei hador of over 100 years, and to declare that one believes in their ideology on the entire subject of Zionism… to claim that this chillul Hashem was permitted temporarily.]

Source: https://iwillawaithim.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/on-r-chaim-kanievskys-alleged-letter.pdf