Editing Elections (section)

=== Elections for Rabbinical Assemblies ===

==== Petersburg Conference of 5608 (1848) ====
Towards the year 5608 (1848), the Russian Ministry of Interior decided to establish a new assembly, and unlike the assembly in the year 5603 (1843), when the rabbis were chosen by the Ministry of Interior, in these elections they determined that the representatives would be elected through general elections among all the Jews of Russia, and whoever would be elected would be a candidate to participate in the assembly. On the 15th of Shevat 5608 (1848), a police official delivered to the Tzemach Tzedek a notice requesting him to run in the elections. The Tzemach Tzedek responded by sending a letter to the Ministry of Interior stating that he did not want to run in the elections, and after the Ministry of Interior did not agree to this, the Tzemach Tzedek sent a medical letter stating that matters causing him excitement, as in this case, could harm his health condition, and indeed ultimately the Tzemach Tzedek did not run in the elections.

Thanks to the Tzemach Tzedek's campaign, out of 32 delegates, 26 were elected who were Charedi Jews, and only 6 delegates were maskilim (enlightened Jews). Despite the overwhelming victory for the Charedi, the Minister of Interior chose from among them only 2 Charedi delegates for the Rabbinical Assembly and 4 maskilim delegates for the Rabbinical Assembly. The six elected to the assembly were: the chairman of the assembly Eliezer Lipshitz, two scholars Mr. Vorbil and Mr. Eichenbaum, the merchant Bernstein from Odessa, the merchant Goldberg from Bielist, and the merchant Beshkovitz from Vitebsk.

==== Rabbinical Assembly of 5670 (1910) ====
At the end of 5669 (1909), the government divided the territory of Russia into forty-two districts and announced elections that would be held at the beginning of the winter of 5670 (1910), in which Jewish residents would elect their preferred candidate for the Rabbinical Assembly.

The Rebbe Rashab conducted an extensive election campaign and sent representatives to the towns of Russia to encourage residents to elect religious rabbis as representatives, and he published a 'call to action' regarding the elections. In order to prevent the loss of votes, and based on what was agreed upon at the assembly in Vilna, in each district only one rabbi from the religious rabbis ran, and the results were satisfactory.