I started off my evening planning to go to the Slifkin kickoff at the OU-Israel offices, but mistakenly thought it began at 6:00 and not 8:00 and I couldn’t figure out why no one was there when I got there “late”.

So I then headed out to the Manhigut Yehudit conference in the Ramada where I hung out with Bone Crusher who was bouncing while we ate sufganiot.

JoeSettler Jr. was getting a bit tired so we left before the end, but we heard Esther Pollard and various other heroes of the Orange movement speak as they lit the Chanukah candles.

But who knew!

This is the first time that Mrs. JoeSettler actually heard Moshe speak about Manhigut Yehudit and its goals, up till then it was always just hello-goodbye at social events.

She said Moshe spoke to the point. He stated the problems and stated the solutions. She doesn’t like politics and he didn’t speak politics. He spoke common sense.

She most appreciated when he said that judges need to be elected by the people, not by other judges but she was most impressed by the young people who were introduced who had stood their ground against the expulsion and the judges who jailed them on political grounds.

The large hall in the Ramada Renaissance was completely full.

Manhigut Yehudit is growing in size. I hope now it also grows in political maturity - not so it can start cutting backroom deals with other politicians, but rather to gain experience to avoid being taken advantage of by those more experienced politicians that would use and abuse Manhigut’s powerbase by trying to cut deals and backstabbing.

Manhigut Yehudit needs to stick to its long term plans and avoid the backrooms.

This conference showed that the people are there to build a real powerbase.

Moshe – use it wisely.