This week, Rav Avraham Deutsch, the av beis din and rosh yeshiva in Maaleh Adumim, is visiting Lawrence, as the guest of Rav Dovid Weinberger, to boost his important work in Israel. The public will be fascinated by the tremendous revolution he has accomplished in just five years, which has almost no parallel in the Jewish world.

Only ten minutes from Jerusalem, Maaleh Adumim is going through the stormiest elections it has ever experienced. For religious life in the city, the stakes have never been so high.

Everything began five years ago, when Rav Avraham Deutsch began giving a weekly lecture to IDF soldiers and youth in the city. After they had warmed up to him, youths complained about the paltry level of religious services in the city and asked for his assistance. He canvassed the city and discovered hundreds of bored youths drifting through the streets. Many of them evinced street behavior and were using drugs.

After consulting with Rav Aaron Leib Shteinman, shlita, Rav Deutsch began activities in the city to save the youth and improve religious services. He purchased an apartment in the city and set off fomenting a genuine revolution.

His first serious economic investment in the city was launching his "Students of Ksav Sofer" institutions in memory of the Ksav Sofer, of whom Rav Deutsch is a descendant. He opened the Talam Club to provide vocational placement, games, and other attractions together with classes in Judaism and Torah for boys and girls in the city. The results were impressive: within a few weeks, hundreds of boys and girls were showing up daily. The youth were beginning to imbibe the eternal values of Judaism. The revolution had taken off and was gathering strength.

Rav Deutsch then opened the first elementary school of its kind in the city, offering a tried-and-true timeless Jewish education. Today, hundreds of children are learning there. Afterwards, he opened a rabbinical court for financial affairs, a kollel where avreichim study, an avos u'banim program, and many other projects that had never existed before in the city. Rav Deutsch stands behind Maaleh Adumim's charity activities through a special fund he founded which helps Maaleh Adumim's needy and poor. Rav Deutsch also founded a weekly newspaper through which he imparts information and ideas important to the city residents.

All the city's residents are pleased with these developments. As far as they are concerned, Rav Deutsch is their rav. All of them, even those who are not religious, want a good education for their child.

While Rav Deutsch bore the onus of these expensive activities, he also bore the ire of the city government. Mr. Benny Casriel, the mayor of Maaleh Adumim for close to 20 years, is known for his dislike of the religious public. He has tried to stop Rav Deutsch's activities with all means at his disposal and has maligned him on every occasion.

At the instructions of gedolei Torah, Rav Deutsch has courageously fought back to strengthen Torah and Jewish settlement. He recently launched the Atid party to run in the upcoming municipal elections, which will be held on November 11. The party is called "Future" and its slogan is "For the sake of the future of education and Judaism in the city."

The party includes representatives from all the city's parties who want Rav Deutsch's unfolding revolution to have the municipality's official cooperation. This week, when the mayor realized that his back was against the wall and Rav Deutsch's power in the city was too great to ignore, he begged the rav's representatives to sit down with him and begin negotiations for cooperation after the elections.

Gedolei Yisrael from all circles and communities completely support Rav Deutsch's activities. Almost every event which he made in the city has been attended by the Ponovezh rosh yeshiva, Rav Aaron Leib Shteinman; the Brisker rosh yeshiva, Rav Dovid Soloveichik; Rav Ovadya Yosef; the rav of Shaaray Tefila in Lawrence, Rav Dovid Weinberger; and many others. They all wish him success in the upcoming elections and all his other efforts done for the sake of his city.

Source: 5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=3346