Agudat Yisrael

Agudat Yisrael
אגודת ישראל
LeaderYitzhak Goldknopf
Ya'akov Litzman
Yitzhak-Meir Levin
Yehuda Meir Abramowicz
Avraham Yosef Shapira
Menachem Porush
Founded1912; 112 years ago (1912)
NewspaperHamodia
Ideology
Political positionRight-wing
ReligionHaredi Judaism (Hasidism)
International affiliationWorld Agudath Israel
AlliancesUnited Religious Front (1949–1951)
Religious Torah Front (1955–1960, 1973–1977)
United Torah Judaism (current)
Knesset
4 / 120
Most MKs5 (1988)
Election symbol
ג
Website
smart-click.co.il/agodat_israel/
Agudat Yisrael council meeting

Agudat Yisrael (Hebrew: אֲגוּדָּת יִשְׂרָאֵל, romanizedAgudath Israel, lit.'Union of Israel'; or Yiddish: Agudas Yisroel) is a Haredi Jewish political party in Israel. It began as a political party representing Haredi Jews in Poland, originating in the Agudath Israel movement in Upper Silesia.[3] It later became the party of many Haredim in Israel. It was the umbrella party for many, though not all, Haredi Jews in Israel until the 1980s, as it had been during the British Mandate of Palestine.

Since the 1980s it has become a predominantly Hasidic party, though it often combines with the Degel HaTorah non-Hasidic Ashkenazi Haredi party for elections and coalition-forming (although not with the Sephardi and Mizrahi Haredi party Shas). When so combined, they are known together as United Torah Judaism.

History

[edit]
Kashrut Badatz of Agudat Yisrael

When political Zionism began to emerge in the 1890s, and recruit supporters in Europe and America, it was opposed by many Orthodox Jews, who believed the Jewish state would emerge from divine intervention.[4] World Agudath Israel was founded in Kattowitz, German Empire (now Katowice, Poland), in 1912, to provide an umbrella organization for observant Jews who opposed the Zionist movement.

In Israel, Agudat Yisrael was established as a branch of this movement, to provide opposition to the organised Zionist Jewish community (the "New Yishuv", as opposed to the traditionalist, religious "Old Yishuv"). One of its most authoritative spokesmen against the formation of a Jewish State, the Dutch poet Jacob Israël de Haan, was assassinated by the Haganah in 1924.[5] In 1933, it entered into an agreement with the Jewish Agency in Israel, according to which Agudat Yisrael would receive 6.5% of the immigration permits.[6] It was led at the time by Rabbi Moshe Blau (brother of the head of Neturei Karta Rav Amram).[7] In the wake of the Holocaust, anti-Zionist rabbis who led Agudat Israel recognised the great utility of a Jewish state, and it became non-Zionist, rather than anti-Zionist. It did not actively participate in the creation of Israel, but it ceased its opposition to it.[4] Eventually, on the eve of the Israeli Declaration of Independence (1948), Agudat Yisrael yielded to pressure from the Zionist movement, and since that time, it has been a participant in most Israeli governments.[8] Over time, the movement realized that its more active participation in politics would come with benefits, and it agreed to become a coalition partner of several Israeli governments. However, its original reservations about a secular government influenced its decision to refuse cabinet positions.[4]

Agudat Yisrael originally had a mixed Hasidic and "Litvish" (Lithuanian-style Haredi) membership. However, in the 1980s, Rabbi Elazar Shach, leader of Israel's Litvish community and their pre-eminent rosh yeshiva ("yeshiva dean"), split from the party. He created the new Degel HaTorah ("Flag of the Torah") party. Most of the Litvish community left Agudah to join Degel HaTorah, leaving Agudah with primarily Hasidic members. Rabbi Shach had earlier assisted Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef in splitting from Agudah to create a Sephardic Haredi party known as Shas. Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah have not always agreed with each other about policy matters; however, over the years, the two parties have co-operated and united as a voting bloc to win the maximum number of seats in the Knesset, since many extra votes can be wasted if certain thresholds are not attained under Israel's proportional representation parliamentary system. The two parties chose to function and be listed under the name of United Torah Judaism (UTJ, Hebrew Yahadut HaTorah).

When both parties joined the government coalition of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2004, the UTJ union was broken due to rivalries. For the 2006 Israel legislative election, Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah once again put their differences aside, and officially revived their United Torah Judaism alliance to win the maximum number of seats in the 17th Knesset.

Though Agudat Yisrael has never elected more than ten members in the Knesset, it has often played crucial roles in the formation of Israel's coalition governments because Israel's system of proportional representation allows small parties to wield the balance of power between the larger parties. This political leverage has been used to obtain funding for yeshivas and community institutions, to obtain a de facto exemption for Haredi Yeshiva students from military service, and to pass legislation regarding the observance of the Shabbat and kashrut dietary regulations, sometimes to the consternation of secular Israelis.

Religious and political leadership

[edit]

Political power is vested in the Hasidic Rebbes of Ger, Belz, Vizhnitz, and Boston.

In addition, policy decisions of Agudat Yisrael are ratified by its Council of Torah Sages, which includes several other prominent Hasidic leaders and scholars, many being the leading rabbis from the main constituent groups. When participating in government coalitions, the party generally refrains from accepting actual cabinet posts. Its positions on Israeli foreign policy and the Palestinian question have been flexible in the past, since the party formally rejects political secular Zionism and does not view such issues ideologically. Therefore, it has been able to participate in both Likud- and Labor-led coalitions. In more recent years, it has become more sympathetic to the settler movement in the West Bank, and thus more security-conscious on military issues affecting Israel's survival. Agudat Yisrael supported Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan of 2005.

In 1948, Rabbi Yehuda Meir Abramowicz was appointed as General Secretary.

Rabbi Meir Porush, as well as Yaakov Litzman, and Yisrael Eichler, from the Hasidic courts of Ger and Belz, respectively, have represented the party in Israel's Knesset. Another long-time Agudat MK is Rabbi Shmuel Halpert, a member of the court of Vizhnitz.

Election results

[edit]
Election Leader Votes % Seats +/– Government
1949 Yitzhak-Meir Levin Part of the United Religious Front
2 / 120
Steady Coalition
1951 13,799 2.01 (#9)
3 / 120
Increase 1 Coalition (1951–1952)
Opposition (1952–1955)
1955 Part of the Religious Torah Front
3 / 120
Steady Opposition
1959
3 / 120
Steady Opposition
1961 37,178 3.69 (#8)
4 / 120
Steady Opposition
1965 39,795 3.30 (#7)
4 / 120
Steady Opposition
1969 44,002 3.22 (#4)
4 / 120
Steady Opposition
1973 Shlomo Lorincz Part of the Religious Torah Front
3 / 120
Decrease 1 Opposition
1977 Yehuda Meir Abramowicz 58,652 3.36 (#6)
4 / 120
Increase 1 Coalition
1981 Avraham Yosef Shapira 72,312 3.73 (#4)
4 / 120
Steady Coalition
1984 36,079 1.74 (#11)
2 / 120
Decrease 2 Coalition
1988 Moshe Ze'ev Feldman 102,714 4.50 (#4)
5 / 120
Increase 3 Coalition
1992 Avraham Yosef Shapira Part of United Torah Judaism
3 / 120
Decrease 2 Opposition
1996 Meir Porush
2 / 120
Decrease 1 Coalition
1999
3 / 120
Steady Coalition
2003 Yaakov Litzman
3 / 120
Steady Coalition
2006
4 / 120
Increase 1 Opposition
2009
3 / 120
Decrease 1 Coalition
2013
4 / 120
Increase 1 Opposition
2015
3 / 120
Decrease 1 Coalition
Apr 2019
4 / 120
Increase 1 Caretaker
Sep 2019
4 / 120
Steady Caretaker
2020
3 / 120
Decrease 1 Coalition
2021
3 / 120
Steady Opposition
2022 Yitzhak Goldknopf
4 / 120
Increase 1 Coalition

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Guide to Israel's political parties". BBC News. 21 January 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  2. ^ Ishaan Tharoor (14 March 2015). "A guide to the political parties battling for Israel's future". The Washington Post. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  3. ^ "Agudas Yisroel". YIVO Encyclopedia. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  4. ^ a b c Baskin, Judith Reesa, ed. (2010). The Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture. Cambridge University Press. p. 304. ISBN 978-0-521-82597-9.
  5. ^ "Jacob de Haan, Israel's Forgotten Gay Haredi Political Poet". Tablet.
  6. ^ "Agudat Yisrael" in Answers.com
  7. ^ Safier, Dovi (23 March 2021). "Across the Ideological Divide - Mishpacha Magazine". Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  8. ^ Aguddat Israel in Jewish Virtual Library
[edit]