New Haredi party seeks to challenge Israel’s powerful ultra-Orthodox parties

A new grassroots political party is seeking to challenge the long-standing dominance of Israel’s two major Haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ), by offering a platform focused on greater economic participation, education and shared responsibility for Israeli society.

The party, called “The Charedi Public,” has recently begun holding events in Ramat Bet Shemesh and other areas with large Haredi populations.

Its leaders argue that the established Haredi parties have become disconnected from the concerns of their constituents and the wider Israeli public, and say they want to change the community’s approach to issues that have long created tensions between Haredim and other Israelis, including IDF enlistment and workforce participation.

The party’s platform calls for Haredi schools to offer secular subjects such as mathematics, English, and science, preparing students for greater participation in the workforce and, for those who do not study full-time in yeshiva, potentially for military service.

A campaign video posted by the party laments that the Haredi community had allowed “the extremist factions to dictate our agenda,” resulting in the children of the community being “the poorest in Israel.”

Party chairman and Beit Shemesh Deputy Mayor Moti Leitner spoke at a recent campaign event, where he slammed the leadership of Shas and UTJ for having “forgotten what responsibility means.”

Standing next to an Israeli flag and a party banner declaring “This time we are taking responsibility,” Leitner said that “For the past three years, the State of Israel has been at war on multiple fronts against enemies who rise against us to destroy us, a war that began with the terrible massacre that reminded every single one of us what responsibility truly is."

“Thousands of Haredim stepped up and enlisted, coming to assist and trying to help in any way they could, yet it seems the heavy disasters passed over the heads of the detached political leadership," Leitner continued.

He also accused the leadership of having “a policy” of “detachment and stupidity.”

Leitner also pointed to the so-called "Jerusalem faction,” an extreme anti-Zionist group within the Haredi community known for engaging in street violence against its political and ideological opponents. Leitner asserted that “the last four years have proven that a vote for United Torah Judaism and Shas is a vote for the bullies of the Jerusalem Faction.”

The party’s platform also focuses heavily on reducing poverty and increasing economic independence within the Haredi community.

“To fight poverty, we will work to ensure our children acquire basic life skills and study math and English at a high level. We will work to expand appropriate educational frameworks, vocational training, and employment opportunities. We will replace the politics of poverty, which fights against providing tools for job market integration, and implement a plan that enables a life of Torah grounded in honorable livelihood and financial independence.”

Speaking with reporters after the event, Leitner explained that “We demanded at the beginning to operate within the [existing] Haredi parties. When their answer was silence, they left us no choice.” He added his hopes that soon “quite a few rabbis, Hasidic rebbes, and community leaders will publicly declare the support they have so far given us secretly.”

Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer, a rabbinical judge and a member of the board of directors of an NGO linked to the IDF’s Nahal Haredi battalion, said it was unacceptable that most non-Haredi Jewish Israelis view the Haredi community as “unwilling to share responsibility for society and responsibility for the state in which we all live.”

“It hurts when the name of Torah becomes identified with evading responsibility, with dependence on others, and with taking without giving,” he added.

“We must ask ourselves if we haven’t lost something along the way. Tens of thousands of Haredim, hundreds of thousands of Haredim, are asking the same question and seeking an alternative, and they are right,” Pfeffer continued.

Speaking strategically, Pfeffer told the Times of Israel that “over the last two decades, Haredi parties have actually not grown in their share of the electoral seats, which is an incredible fact to ponder upon because their share of the population has grown dramatically. There’s a huge amount of disillusionment, especially post-October 7, with the Haredi parties. There’s a tremendous sense of internal discontent.”