The Jewish Home הבית היהודי | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Hagit Moshe[1] |
| Founded | 18 November 2008 (2008-11-18) |
| Dissolved | 20 August 2023[2] |
| Preceded by | National Religious Party |
| Merged into | National Religious Party–Religious Zionism |
| Headquarters | Jerusalem |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-right[4][5][6] |
| Religion | Orthodox Judaism[7] |
| National affiliation | URWP (2019) Yamina (2019, 2020) |
| Member parties | Yamina/New Right Tkuma (2013–2019) |
| Colours | Blue,green |
| Most MKs | 8 (2013) |
| Election symbol | |
| ב[a] | |
| Website | |
| www | |
| |
| Part ofa series on |
| Far-right politics in Israel |
|---|
 |
The Jewish Home (Hebrew:הַבַּיִת הַיְהוּדִי,romanized: HaBeit HaYehudi) was anOrthodox Jewish,religious Zionist andfar-right political party inIsrael.[8] It was originally formed by a merger of theNational Religious Party,Moledet andTkuma in November 2008. However, Moledet broke away from the party after its top representative was placed 17th on the new party's list for the2009 Knesset elections, and instead ran on a joint list withHaTikva. Tkuma later also left to join theNational Union.
For the2013 elections, the Jewish Home and Tkuma parties ran a joint list under the leadership of the chairman of the Jewish Home,Naftali Bennett.[9] The party ran with Tkuma again in the2015 elections.[10] In April2019, Jewish Home ran on a joint list with Tkuma andOtzma Yehudit. The parties registered under the nameUnion of Right-Wing Parties. The party ran on a joint list (namedYamina) with Tkuma and the New Right in theSeptember 2019 Israeli legislative election, though the joint list split into two factions on 10 October. Yamina ran again in the2020 Israeli legislative election. Party leaderRafi Peretz announced on 5 January 2021 that he was retiring from politics and was succeeded byHagit Moshe as the leader of the party on 19 January 2021. In 2023, the Jewish Home and theReligious Zionist Party agreed to merge to become a single party,National Religious Party–Religious Zionism.
TheNational Religious Party (NRP) and theNational Union alliance ran a joint list for the2006 Knesset elections. On 3 November 2008 it was announced that the NRP and the Moledet and Tkuma factions of the National Union would merge to form a new party.[11] However, theAhi andHaTikva factions of the Union rejected the merger—their leaders,Effi Eitam andAryeh Eldad, respectively, were both opposed to the party being a purely religious one,[12] while Eitam was also unhappy that the new party would not hold primaries.[13]
The party was initially nameless. Five names were proposed:HaBayit HaYehudi ("Jewish Home"),Shorashim ("Roots"),Atzma'ut ("Independence"),Shalem ("Whole"), andAmihai ("My Nation Lives"). In an online ballot, the members chose "Jewish Home".[14]
Yaakov Amidror was chosen to head a public committee formed to choose the party's list for the2009 elections.[11] On 8 December 2008, Rabbi ProfessorDaniel Hershkowitz, a mathematician from theTechnion, was chosen to head the new party.[15]
When Jewish Home announced its candidate list for the upcoming elections, five of the top six slots went to ex-NRP members. MKUri Ariel of Tkuma was the sole exception: He received the third slot. Polls then indicated Jewish Home would get five to seven seats, thus making the first six spaces highly contested. The ex-National Union members again complained. Ex-Moledet MK Benny Elon stated that he would not seek re-election, and was replaced on the candidate list by American immigrant Uri Bank. The remaining Moledet members broke away, and allied with HaTikva in a revived Union (Bank also later switched to the Union.)[16]
On 25 December, Tkuma MK Ariel left Jewish Home, and joined the Union.[17] This left Jewish Home as little more than a renamed NRP, which was also reflected in its motto "NewMafdal" (מפד"ל החדשה). In the2009 election, the party won three seats.[18]
In November 2012, the Jewish Home held separateprimaries for the leadership of the party.My Israel leaderNaftali Bennett won over incumbent MKZevulun Orlev, winning more than two-thirds of the vote, and Orlev announced he was resigning from politics. A week later, primaries for the remaining members of the list were held, andNissan Slomiansky,Ayelet Shaked, andUri Orbach reached the top spots. With the National Union breaking up, Uri Ariel officially re-united Tkuma with the Jewish Home to run on a joint list in the2013 Israeli elections. A few Moledet candidates were included. In the elections that were held on 22 January 2013, the Jewish Home won 12 seats. The Jewish Home entered thethirty-third government of Israel under prime ministerBenjamin Netanyahu, and had three ministers (Bennett, Ariel, and Orbach) and two deputy-ministers (Eli Ben Dahan andAvi Wortzman).
As part of its 2013 coalition agreement, the Jewish Home had the right to veto any laws that would change the status quo on religious issues. In December 2013, the party vetoed aYesh Atid-proposed bill that sought to givegay fathers equal tax benefits, saying it would have far-reaching implications on marriage laws. Currently, mothers receive more benefits than do fathers under the law, and thus, couples composed of two men are ineligible for certain tax breaks.[19]
The party lost four seats in the2015 Israeli legislative election, going from 12 seats in the previous election to eight.[20]
In December 2016, the party's memberShuli Mualem proposed the so-called Regulation Bill. The law seeks to legalize dozens of small outposts of settlements built in theoccupied Palestinian territories on private ground of individual Palestinians.[21]
TheRegulation Law passed legislation on 6 February 2017.[22] The law exclusively refers to Palestinians, and allows the government to expropriate land from individual Palestinians against their will for compensation up to 25% above the land's value.[23]
On 16 November 2018, the Jewish Home issued a statement claiming that the party intended to withdraw from Netanyahu's coalition government, and demanded an early election "as soon as possible".[24][25] This threat came after Netanyahu denied party leader Naftali Bennett's request to become the Defense Minister.[26] On 18 November, Netanyahu reneged on an earlier pledge to remove Jewish Home memberEli Ben Dahan as Deputy Defense Minister.[27] Bennett afterwards reneged on this pledge to withdraw on 19 November 2018, and agreed to abandon his push to become Defense Minister and keep the party in the coalition.[28]
In December 2018, three Jewish Home MKs (Bennett, Mualem and Shaked) left the party to form theNew Right.[29]Rafi Peretz was elected leader of the party on 4 February 2019.[30]
In the build-up to theApril 2019 elections, the party agreed to run on a joint list withTkuma, and later joined theUnion of Right-Wing Parties (URWP) alliance alongsideOtzma Yehudit.[31]
Prior to theSeptember 2019 elections, the Jewish Home joined theYamina alliance alongside New Right and Tkuma.[32] Following the elections, the bloc split into separate Knesset factions on 10 October, one consisting of the Jewish Home and Tkuma, and the other New Right.[33] However, the parties re-united to reform Yamina prior to the2020 elections.[34]
On 22 April 2020, it was reported that Bennett was now "considering all options" for the Yamina alliance's political future, including departing from Netanyahu's government, which had just agreed to a coalition with the leader of the opposition Blue and White partyBenny Gantz, and joining the opposition. Bennett was reported to be unhappy with the new coalition government's decision to hold back on the issue ofjudicial reform.[35]
On 14 May 2020, the Jewish Home unofficially left Yamina and joined the Netanyahu government, with Peretz becoming Jerusalem Minister.[36] The party officially split from Yamina on 14 July 2020.[37]
After winning just one seat when contesting the2020 Israeli legislative election within theYamina party, the Jewish Home left Yamina and joined theThirty-fifth government of Israel.[36][38] The party officially split from Yamina on 14 July 2020.[37] Its leader, Rafi Peretz, was appointedMinister of Jerusalem andMinistry of Diaspora Affairs in the new government.[36][38]
During the run-up to the 2021 Israeli legislative election, and amid poor showings in the polls, Peretz announced on 5 January 2021 that he would resign from his role as leader of the Jewish Home, and retire from politics, triggering a leadership election.[39][40] The election was conducted on 19 January 2021, with 965 members of the Central Committee selecting the new leader.[41] Those running were Hagit Moshe, the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, andNir Orbach, the CEO of the Jewish Home.[42] On 19 January, Hagit Moshe was elected to succeed Peretz as the leader of the Jewish Home with 472 votes (56.12%).[43][44] On 4 February, Moshe announced that the Jewish Home will not contest the March 2021 election.[45] The party held negotiations with different parties, but failed to find a running mate and did not register any electoral candidates. Orbach left the party, joinedYamina, and was placed sixth on its party list,[46] going on to win a seat.[47]
Yossi Brodny was chosen on 18 July 2022 to lead the party's slate ahead of the2022 Israeli legislative election.[48] The party allied withYamina and a joint run, running under the name "The Jewish Home", was approved by the Central Committee of the party on 14 September 2022.[1]
Top ten candidates for the 2022 elections to the 25th Knesset:[49]
The party failed to pass the electoral threshold.[50]
The Jewish Home central committee voted to dissolve the party on 20 August 2023[2] and merged with theReligious Zionist Party to become a single party,National Religious Party–Religious Zionism.[51]
In August 2024,Yossi Brodny announced that he was joiningYisrael Beiteinu.[52]
Other members joinedOtzma Yehudit,New Hope andShas.[53]
In 2025, several former Yamina members were reported to have assisted in registering a new political party for former prime ministerNaftali Bennett, referred to in the media as "Bennett 2026".[54]
The party primarily represented Modern Orthodox as well asChardal Jews.[7] For many years, this community has been politically fractured.[55] In the 2013 elections, the party was led byNaftali Bennett, a charismatic high-tech millionaire, who appealed to both religious and secular Israelis.[56] The party's pro-settlement message and Bennett's personal appeal helped it increase popularity among a broader segment of the population.[7] The attention that Bennett received also apparently had an effect on Likud's 2013 election strategy, pushing it to the right.[55] Along withYesh Atid, the Jewish Home surged in popularity by promising to end the controversial system of draft exemptions given to many ultra-Orthodox seminary students, and to "ease the burden" on middle-class Israelis who serve in the military, work, and pay taxes. These two parties became the two largest coalition parties in Prime Minister Netanyahu's government, and leaders of both parties were able to force Netanyahu to promise that the ultra-Orthodox political parties will not be in the new coalition.[57] Despite Bennett's alliance with Yesh Atid leaderYair Lapid on many domestic issues, the two differ sharply over peace efforts and settlement building. Bennett is opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state, and has called for Israel to annexArea C of the West Bank and offer citizenship to the Palestinians living there.[7][58][59] Their alliance ended during their time as coalition partners, before the2015 Israeli legislative election.
Most of the party's candidates for the2015 elections were opposed tosame-sex marriage.[60] Some of the remarks made by its candidates have been calledhomophobic byYair Lapid;Zehava Gal-On andMickey Rosenthal also criticized the comments.[61] Despite this, in a 2016 poll conducted for theHiddush organization, 57% of Jewish Home voters said they back same-sex marriage or partnerships.[62]
The party was considered to be part of thenational camp in Israeli politics, a group of political parties that sharenationalist views and often form governments together.[63]
In response to the party's short-lived 2019 alliance withOtzma Yehudit, RabbiBenny Lau, amodern Orthodox rabbi from Jerusalem, said: "A vote for Bayit Yehudi is a vote for the racism of[Meir] Kahane." The rabbi equatedKahanism with Nazism.[64]
| Leader | Took office | Left office | Elected/reelected as leader | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | _(cropped_2).jpg) | Daniel Hershkowitz | 2008 | 2012 | 2008 |
| 2 | .jpg) | Naftali Bennett | 2012 | 2018 | 2012,2015,2017 |
| 3 |  | Rafi Peretz | 2019 | 2021 | 2019 |
| 4 | _(cropped).jpg) | Hagit Moshe | 2021 | 2023 | 2021 |
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Daniel Hershkowitz | 96,765 (#11) | 2.87 | 3 / 120 | New | Coalition |
| 2013[a] | Naftali Bennett | 345,985 (#4) | 9.12 | 8 / 120 |  5 | Coalition |
| 2015[b] | 283,910 (#6) | 6.74 | 6 / 120 |  2 | Coalition | |
| Apr 2019 | Rafi Peretz | Part of theURWP | 3 / 120 | 3 | Snap election | |
| Sep 2019 | Part ofYamina | 2 / 120 | 1 | Snap election | ||
| 2020 | 1 / 120 | 1 | Coalition | |||
| 2021 | Hagit Moshe[c] | Did not contest | Extra-parliamentary | |||
| 2022 | 56,793 (#13) | 1.19 | 0 / 120 |  | Extra-parliamentary | |
| Knesset | Years | MKs | Members |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | 2006–2009 | 5 | Uri Ariel,Eliyahu Gabai,Zvi Hendel,Zevulun Orlev,Nissan Slomiansky |
| 18 | 2009–2013 | 3 | Daniel Hershkowitz,Uri Orbach,Zevulun Orlev |
| 19 | 2013–2015 | 12 | Naftali Bennett,Uri Ariel,Nissan Slomiansky,Eli Ben-Dahan,Ayelet Shaked,Uri Orbach(died in office),Zvulun Kalfa,Avi Wortzman,Moti Yogev,Orit Strook,Yoni Chetboun,Shuli Mualem,Hillel Horowitz(from 16 February 2015) |
| 20 | 2015–2019 | 8 | Naftali Bennett,Uri Ariel,Ayelet Shaked,Eli Ben-Dahan,Nissan Slomiansky,Yinon Magal(resigned in 2015),Moti Yogev,Bezalel Smotrich,Shuli Mualem(from October 2015) |
| 21 | 2019 | 3 | Rafi Peretz,Moti Yogev,Idit Silman |
| 22 | 2019–2020 | 2 | Rafi Peretz,Moti Yogev |
| 23 | 2020–2021 | 1 | Rafi Peretz |
(in Hebrew)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
