Jewish Home announced today the formation of the first full-time English Language Social Media Division of a Knesset party in Israeli political history. Naftali Bennett’s English Language Social Media Division will be in charge of Naftali’s Facebook, Twitter and Youtube pages. The target base is a mix between the 250,000 English speaking immigrants, Jews in the Diaspora and the international community.

Jeremy Saltan, aka Knesset Jeremy, was chosen to lead the new division. Saltan, a native of Skokie Illinios, is a veteran party insider who managed the high profile Bayit Yehudi English language Knesset campaign last winter. Previously, he managed Jeremy Gimpel’s Bayit Yehudi primary campaign and served as a political and legislative assistant to National Union leader Yaakov Ketzeleh Katz in the 18th Knesset where he authored the Grunis and Outpost Bills. Most recently he served as a Campaign Manager for Bayit Yehudi in the municipal elections.

Saltan released this statement: “Bayit Yehudi is fulfilling their campaign promise to enable English speakers a real voice within the party at a level that no one else offers. We will be the only party offering accountability, transparency and representation in English to our voters. I want to thank Naftali for putting his trust in me and I look forward to this exciting project.”

Here’s the Knesset Jeremy weekly poll average  from the week of Dec. 2-8, of 8 different polls (2 Panels, 2 Dialogue, 2 Maagar Mochot, Fox, Meno Geva). The current number of Knesset seats for each group is in [brackets], with the previous week’s average in (brackets):

37.7 (37.5) [42] Likud Beitenu

19.7 (19.2) [08] Labor

11.3 (09.8) [05] Jewish Home-National Union

10.5 (11.7) [10] Shas

8.2 (7.8) [07] The Movement (Livni)

7.3 (8.0) [--] Yesh Atid

5.7 (5.5) [05] Yahadut Hatorah/UTJ

3.6 (4.1) [03] Meretz

3.6 (3.5) [04] Ra’am-Ta’al

3.5 (4.0) [04] Hadash

3.0 (3.1) [03] Balad

2.2 (3.0) [01] Am Shalem

1.6 (1.4) [02] Strong Israel

1.6 (0.8) [28] Kadima

0.0 (0.0) [05] Independence

69.2 (69.1) [65] Right

50.7 (50.8) [55] Left

Changes from week 8 to week 9:

Jewish Home passes Shas for 3rd place.

The Movement passes Yesh Atid for 5th place.

Ra’am-Ta’al passes Hadash for 9th place.

Note: This will be the last week Independence was polled. On Thursday they decided not to run in the elections.

Visit KnessetJeremy.com.

The Yishai Fleisher Show is Israel’s only English-language FM talk show and it is brought to you in partnership with JewishPress.com

Click the links below to listen or download this week’s show:

The Good Season Segment #1 

Forecasters are predicting that Israel could receive record amounts of snow and Yishai and Malkah begin this week’s show by showing excitement for snow in Jeruslaem. Yishai talks about his recent experience accompanying a special tour group, which included American legislators, on the Mount of Olives that was attacked by rock-throwing Arabs. Lastly, a recently planted palm with an iconic lineage, tracing back to Masada, is visited in the Negev.

Knesset Jeremy on the Tal Law Segment #2 

An early agreement between David Ben-Gurion and leaders of Israel’s ultra-orthodox community have allowed young Jewish men studying in Yeshiva to be exempt from military service. This exception has been a hot-button issue in the State of Israel for many years and legislation was put into place to slowly integrate young ultra-orthodox men into service in the Israel Defense Forces. Yishai and Jeremy Saltan discuss pros and cons of the Tal Law, the law that was enacted in order to put ultra-orthodox men into service. This law will be expiring soon and potential solutions are discussed. At the end of the segment, Yishai also talks about attending a memorial service for former Prime Minister Menachem Begin on the Mount of Olives and how his son, Benny Begin, is responding to the situation in Migron.

Tu B’Shevat in Satmar Williamsburg Segments #3   Segment#4

Tu B’Shevat, which is the new year of the trees, is a minor holiday that is traditionally not celebrated among many Jewish groups in the United States. During his recent tour of North America, Yishai led a Tu B’Shevat Seder for Satmar Chassidim in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. Satmar Chassidim are generally not among the most Zionist Jewish groups but Yishai finds himself pleasantly surprised to see a group who love their land and the state that exists within it.