[5] In 1891, the Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities in Jaffa united, and Rabbi Halevi was appointed to lead the united community with the consent of Yechiel Michel Pines and Yoel Moshe Salomon on behalf of the Ashkenazim, and Aharon Shlush and Rabbi Yaakov Meir on behalf of the Sephardim.

[6] This made Rabbi Halevi the highest rabbinical authority in Jaffa and a symbol of the possibility of unity between Sephardim and Ashkenazim in Israel.

He particularly opposed the heads of the public, members of Bnei Moshe, such as Menachem Stein, Vladimir Tiomkin, Yehoshua Barzillai, Yehezkel Danin (Suchovolsky), and Chaim Hissin, who sought to be accepted as partners in the unified community council and influence education and health in the city.

[citation needed] Rabbi Halevi, supported by Yehiel Michael Pines from Jerusalem, vehemently refused and attacked the secularists mainly for leading dances of boys and girls and public desecration of the Sabbath and later for theater performances in Jaffa and the colonies.

At the peak of the struggle, the rabbi announced that he would refuse to perform weddings for anyone who did not promise to avoid "boys' dances with virgins.