Rabbi Hillel Horowitz
Rabbi Hillel HorowitzPublic Relations

Rabbi Hillel Horowitz of Hevron, number 13 on the Bayit Yehudi list for the 19th Knesset, is hoping his strong ties with the Chabad movement will pay off in the coming elections.

"We are all partners in the wide effort, for enlarging the number of supporters of the party, and extending the range of hues of the public that connects to it," Rabbi Horowitz told Arutz Sheva Thursday.

Rabbi Horowitz is credited with revolutionizing the Jewish public's connection with the Cave of Machpela in Hevron, where the Patriarchs are buried. Through the connection to the Cave of Machpela and Hevron, he has also fostered ties with the Chabad Hassidic community.

These days he is busy making the most of these connections, visiting Chabad's rabbis countrywide, and meeting Chabad shluchim (emissaries). The shluchim run Chabad houses throughout Israel, which serve as outreach centers to the general populace, and Rabbi Horowitz  says that each Chabad house is connected to dozens, sometimes hundreds of families.

These Chabad houses hold get-togethers which Rabbi Horowitz attends, sometimes accompanied by Bayit Yehudi head Naftali Bennett.

Rabbi Horowitz says that if the party wins a large number of Knesset seats, it will be able to have an influence on education and settlement policy. "We will lead to more values-based education, to welfare, to a strengthening of the Torah seed groups (gar'inim), to stimulating the settlement drive, and of course, I will take care of the Chabad Hassidim."