Rabbi Gershon Edelstein gets vaccinated, calls on public to do the same

Rabbi Edelstein, 97, heads the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak and serves as leader of the Degel HaTorah political party.

Rabbi Gershon Edelstein  (photo credit: COURTESY OF OFFICE OF RABBI GERSHON EDELSTEIN)
Rabbi Gershon Edelstein
(photo credit: COURTESY OF OFFICE OF RABBI GERSHON EDELSTEIN)
Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, one of the most prominent leaders of the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox (haredi) community in Israel, on Tuesday received the coronavirus vaccine and called on the haredi public "to get vaccinated as soon as possible."
Edelstein made his way on Tuesday to the Mayanei HaYeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak and received the coronavirus vaccine. He returned home 20 minutes later and issued his message to the public, calling on them to go get vaccinated as soon as they possibly can. 
Leaving his home in order to get vaccinated was meant by the rabbi as a loud and clear message to those who are voicing concerns against the vaccinations and their safety. 
Earlier in December, Rabbis Edelstein, Chaim Kanievsky and Shalom Cohen, all major figures in the haredi community, recommended that those who can, should receive the coronavirus vaccines, once it's approved. 
Rabbi Edelstein is considered one of the only senior rabbis in Israel that publicly supported the Health Ministry's attempts to combat the spread of coronavirus by calling on his public to maintain social distancing guidelines on several occasions. 
Hopefully, now that the rabbi was actually administered with the vaccine, more people would be convinced and get vaccinated themselves, gradually eradicating the pandemic. 
Edelstein, 97, heads the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak and serves as leader of the Degel HaTorah political party. Edelstein is also president of the party's Council of Torah Sages - a powerful authority within the haredi community. The decisions reached by the council's rabbis are accepted as the policies which the Degel Hatorah political party carries out.