Gershon Edelstein

After Aharon Leib Shteinman, the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah political party, died in 2017, Edelstein became the joint new leader alongside Chaim Kanievsky. After Kanievsky's death in 2022, Edelstein became the sole leader. He is also a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah in Israel.

In 2003 , he was added to the Council of Torah Elders of the Torah Banner Party .

In the year 2001 (2001), in the middle of a lesson given by Rabbi Edelstein, some of his opponents erupted and caused a riot in the place with the aim of stopping the lesson. Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Steinman sent him a letter with a request that he forgive them  ] . (2008) His opponents threw a white cup at him from a building window. Following this, a rally was held in support of him at his yeshiva, with the participation of rabbis Haim Kanievsky , Michal Yehuda Lipkovitz and Nissim Karlitz . Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Steinman sent a letter to the assembly  .

In the mid -1990s , succession struggles emerged in the Ponivage yeshiva. According to the court's ruling on the matter, Rabbi Edelstein began in the month of Iyer 2005 by saying a general lesson to the members of the yeshiva, thus effectively becoming the head of the yeshiva together with Rabbi Baruch Dov Pobarsky . After that, Rabbi Shmuel Markowitz joined them .

The founder of the yeshiva, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman , appointed him to teach Holocaust refugee students who came to the orphanage " Beti Avot ", and in 1976 he was appointed to give lessons to the young students at the yeshiva. In 1978 he married Hania Rachel, daughter of Rabbi Yehoshua Zelig Diskin , rabbi of Pardes Hana (died on the 14th of Tishrei 5572 )  , and in the same year he was appointed by Rabbi Kahneman to the rabbi of the yeshiva.

Rabbi Edelstein was close to Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karlitz . After the death of his father, in the 20th year of Hashvan 571 ( 1950 ), he hesitated whether to take over the role of rabbi of Ramat Hasharon, but since he already held a position in the yeshiva and in light of his wife's refusal to uproot from Bnei Brak, the role was assigned to his brother Rabbi Yaakov Edelstein.

A year later, their father remarried Rachel, and he asked them to return, on the grounds that now the burden of the house falls on the rabbi and they will not have to cancel the Torah, and the brothers returned to the study order with their father. In the winter of 1944 ( 1943 - 1944 ), when the Ponivaz Yeshiva was established, Rabbi Shmuel Rozovsky , who was appointed head of the yeshiva, came to ask their father to join the group of founders of the yeshiva. They were among the first six students in the yeshiva, which was then located in the Ligman Synagogue in Bnei Brak , and the boys slept in rooms rented for them in the city. The two young brothers lived in the house of Rabbi Michal Yehuda Lipkowitz , who rented the only bedroom in the house to Rabbi Rozovsky.

In 1935 (1935) the father was elected rabbi of the place. On Elul 1935, the sons were sent to the Lomja yeshiva, following Gershon's pleas. They arrived on foot from their home to the yeshiva in Petach Tikva on Sunday in Elol, and did not know that the time had started the day before. The overseer, Rabbi Avraham Abba Grosbard, said he no longer had room for them. The secretary of the yeshiva, Shlomo Zalman Mozes (father of Menachem Eliezer Mozes ) met them and invited them to sleep in his house, until beds were found for them in the Yeshiva in Bershit Chesvan. At the behest of their father, they joined Rabbi Shmuel Rosovsky's group.

Gershon Edelstein (born April 18, 1923) is rosh yeshiva of the Ponevezh Yeshiva and the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah party in Israel.