Several months ago, well before the Siyyum Ha-Shas celebrating the conclusion of the Daf Yomi, I asked Rabbi Charlop to make private and discrete inquiries from Agudath Israel whether Yeshiva University would be invited to join in the commemoration. He told me that the answer was negative.

I then asked him for more details, and he referred me to Rabbi Parness, who made the inquiries.

I today called Parness and got the following information:

Some time before Passover, he called up Rabbi Moshe Sherer of Agudath Israel, who said that he did not want to give a rash decision, but his first impression is that it will be difficult because it would incite his own kana'im. He would consult his lieutenants and get back to Parness.

On Chol Hamoed Pesach, he told Parness that he consulted with them, and this time the answer was negative again, not because of the kana'im, but because of political reasons. Sherer had many obligations to many personalities who were much more identified with Agudath Israel, and he could not ignore them and give me a seat on the dais (apparently that was the nub of the whole negotiation: a seat on one of the front two rows in Madison Square Garden).

Parness himself believes that the major reason was the kana'im. Parness tells me that the chief antagonist to Yeshiva and myself is Rabbi Svei of Philadelphia, and that unquestionably if he had come and seen me he would have left abruptly.