Agudat Israel Workers
Encyclopedia
Poalei Agudat Yisrael was a political party in Poland
, and is a minor political party and settlement movement
in Israel
. It is also known as PAI or PAGI, its Hebrew acronym (Hebrew: פאג"י or פא"י).
branch of Agudas Izrael of Poland. As well as their trade union activity they fielded candidates in the Polish elections.
With the establishment of the State of Israel, Poalei Agudat Yisrael became an ultra-orthodox
workers' political party associated with Agudat Yisrael. They were also part of the Histadrut
.
In the elections for the first Knesset
, the party ran on a joint list with the other religious parties of the time, Agudat Yisrael, Mizrachi
and Hapoel HaMizrachi
. The group was called the United Religious Front
and won 16 seats. They joined David Ben-Gurion
's coalition government alongside Mapai
, the Progressive Party
, the Sephardim and Oriental Communities
and the Democratic List of Nazareth
.
However, the grouping created problems in the governing coalition due to its differing attitude to education in the new immigrant camps and the religious education system. They also demanded that Ben-Gurion close the Supply and Rationing Ministry and appoint a businessman as Minister for Trade and Industry. As a result, Ben-Gurion resigned on 15 October 1950. After the differences were resolved, Ben-Gurion formed the second government on 1 November 1950, with the United Religious Front retaining their place in the coalition.
In the 1951 elections
, the United Religious Front disbanded into its separate parties, and Poalei Agudat Yisrael fought the election alone. They won two seats and were included in Ben-Gurion's coalition. However, they helped bring down the third government after disagreeing with Ben-Gurion on religious education issues. They were not included in the fourth, fifth or sixth governments.
For the 1955 elections
, the party joined with Agudat Yisrael to form the Religious Torah Front
, which won six seats. They did not participate in the coalitions of the sixth or seventh governments.
In the 1959 elections
they once again ran under the Religious Torah Front banner, which won six seats. Again, they did not join the governing coalition. On 9 August 1960 the alliance split, with Poalei Agudat Yisrael taking two of the six seats. After the split, Poalei Agudat Yisrael joined the coalition and Binyamin Mintz
was made Minister of Postal Services
.
In the 1961 election
the party retained its two seats, and were coalition partners in the ninth, tenth and eleventh governments. In the 1965 election
they again won two seats and joined the twelfth government which collapsed when Levi Eshkol
died. Poalei Agudat Yisrael left the coalition when Golda Meir
took over as leader of the thirteenth government. In the 1969 elections
the party retained its two seats, but did not join the governing coalition.
For the 1973 elections
the party joined with Agudat Yisrael again to recreate the Religious Torah Front
, which won five seats. However, the faction split on 15 March 1977, with Poalei Agudat Yisrael taking two of the five seats. In the 1977 elections
the party won only one seat. In the next elections in 1981
it failed to cross the electoral threshold by 2,284 votes.
The party's name was briefly resuscitated during the eleventh Knesset
when Morasha
, part of the governing coalition, split and former Poalei Agudat Yisrael member Avraham Verdiger
renamed his faction Morasha - Poalei Agudat Yisrael
. He merged the party into Agudat Yisrael before the 1988 elections
.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, and is a minor political party and settlement movement
Settlement movement (Israel)
Settlement movement is a term used in Israel to describe national umbrella organisations for kibbutzim, moshavim, moshavim shitufiim, and communal settlements...
in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. It is also known as PAI or PAGI, its Hebrew acronym (Hebrew: פאג"י or פא"י).
History
Poalei Agudas Izrael was founded in Poland as the trade unionTrade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
branch of Agudas Izrael of Poland. As well as their trade union activity they fielded candidates in the Polish elections.
With the establishment of the State of Israel, Poalei Agudat Yisrael became an ultra-orthodox
Haredi Judaism
Haredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism is the most conservative form of Orthodox Judaism, often referred to as ultra-Orthodox. A follower of Haredi Judaism is called a Haredi ....
workers' political party associated with Agudat Yisrael. They were also part of the Histadrut
Histadrut
HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael , known as the Histadrut, is Israel's organization of trade unions. Established in December 1920 during the British Mandate for Palestine, it became one of the most powerful institutions of the State of Israel.-History:The Histadrut was founded in...
.
In the elections for the first Knesset
Israeli legislative election, 1949
Elections for the Constituent Assembly were held in newly independent Israel on 25 January 1949. Voter turnout was 86.9%. Two days after its first meeting on 14 February 1949, legislators voted to change the name of the body to the Knesset...
, the party ran on a joint list with the other religious parties of the time, Agudat Yisrael, Mizrachi
Mizrachi (political party)
Mizrachi was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day National Religious Party.-History:The Mizrachi movement was founded in 1902 in Vilnius as a religious Zionist organisation. It also had a trade union, Hapoel HaMizrachi, started in 1921...
and Hapoel HaMizrachi
Hapoel HaMizrachi
Hapoel HaMizrachi |Mizrachi]] Workers) was a political party and settlement movement in Israel and is one of the predecessors of the National Religious Party.-History:...
. The group was called the United Religious Front
United Religious Front
The United Religious Front was a political alliance of the four major religious parties in Israel, as well as the Union of Religious Independents, formed to fight the 1949 elections.-History:...
and won 16 seats. They joined David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...
's coalition government alongside Mapai
Mapai
Mapai was a left-wing political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in 1968...
, the Progressive Party
Progressive Party (Israel)
The Progressive Party was a political party in Israel.-History:The Progressive Party was a liberal party, most of whose founders came from the ranks of the New Aliyah Party and HaOved HaTzioni, which had been active prior to independence...
, the Sephardim and Oriental Communities
Sephardim and Oriental Communities
Sephardim and Oriental Communities was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Likud party.-History:The Sephardim and Oriental Communities party represented Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews who were already living in Israel at the time of independence, and was part...
and the Democratic List of Nazareth
Democratic List of Nazareth
The Democratic List of Nazareth was a political party in Israel and the only Israeli Arab party to win seats in the first Knesset. The party, which was sponsored by David Ben-Gurion's Mapai, was so named as it was based in Nazareth, the largest Arab city in Israel.-History:In the 1949 elections,...
.
However, the grouping created problems in the governing coalition due to its differing attitude to education in the new immigrant camps and the religious education system. They also demanded that Ben-Gurion close the Supply and Rationing Ministry and appoint a businessman as Minister for Trade and Industry. As a result, Ben-Gurion resigned on 15 October 1950. After the differences were resolved, Ben-Gurion formed the second government on 1 November 1950, with the United Religious Front retaining their place in the coalition.
In the 1951 elections
Israeli legislative election, 1951
Elections for the second Knesset were held in Israel on 30 July 1951. Voter turnout was 75.1%.-Results:¹ Rostam Bastuni, Avraham Berman and Moshe Sneh left Mapam and set up the Left Faction. Bastuni later returned to Mapam whilst Berman and Sneh joined Maki. Hannah Lamdan and David Livschitz left...
, the United Religious Front disbanded into its separate parties, and Poalei Agudat Yisrael fought the election alone. They won two seats and were included in Ben-Gurion's coalition. However, they helped bring down the third government after disagreeing with Ben-Gurion on religious education issues. They were not included in the fourth, fifth or sixth governments.
For the 1955 elections
Israeli legislative election, 1955
Elections for the third Knesset were held in Israel on 26 July 1955. Voter turnout was 82.8%.-Results:Mapai retained its plurality in the Knesset, although its share of the vote dropped by 5.1 and its share of seats dropped from 47 to 40...
, the party joined with Agudat Yisrael to form the Religious Torah Front
Religious Torah Front
The Religious Torah Front was a political alliance in Israel composed of Agudat Yisrael and Poalei Agudat Yisrael.-History:The Religious Torah Front was formed when the Ultra-orthodox parties Agudat Yisrael and Poalei Agudat Yisrael decided to fight the 1955 elections on a joint list.In the...
, which won six seats. They did not participate in the coalitions of the sixth or seventh governments.
In the 1959 elections
Israeli legislative election, 1959
Elections for the fourth Knesset were held in Israel on 3 November 1959. Voter turnout was 81.5%.-Results:¹ The General Zionists and the Progressive Party merged to form the Liberal Party....
they once again ran under the Religious Torah Front banner, which won six seats. Again, they did not join the governing coalition. On 9 August 1960 the alliance split, with Poalei Agudat Yisrael taking two of the six seats. After the split, Poalei Agudat Yisrael joined the coalition and Binyamin Mintz
Binyamin Mintz
Binyamin Mintz was an Israeli politician who served briefly as Minister of Postal Services From July 1960 until his death.-Biography:Born in Łódź in the Russian Empire , Mintz studied in a hasidic Ger school and was a member of Young Agudat Israel...
was made Minister of Postal Services
Communications Minister of Israel
The Communications Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Communications and a relatively minor position in the Israeli cabinet. The post was established in 1952, and until 1970 was known as the Minister of Postal Services...
.
In the 1961 election
Israeli legislative election, 1961
Elections for the fifth Knesset were held in Israel on 15 August 1961. Voter turnout was 81.6%.-Results:¹ Eight MKs broke away from Mapai to establish Rafi² Herut and the Liberal Party merged to form Gahal...
the party retained its two seats, and were coalition partners in the ninth, tenth and eleventh governments. In the 1965 election
Israeli legislative election, 1965
Elections for the sixth Knesset were held in Israel on 1 November 1965. Voter turnout was 85.9%.-Background:Prior to the elections, two major alliances were formed; Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda united to form the Alignment, whilst Herut and the Liberal Party had formed the Gahal alliance towards the end...
they again won two seats and joined the twelfth government which collapsed when Levi Eshkol
Levi Eshkol
' served as the third Prime Minister of Israel from 1963 until his death from a heart attack in 1969. He was the first Israeli Prime Minister to die in office.-Biography:...
died. Poalei Agudat Yisrael left the coalition when Golda Meir
Golda Meir
Golda Meir ; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel....
took over as leader of the thirteenth government. In the 1969 elections
Israeli legislative election, 1969
Elections for the seventh Knesset were held in Israel on 28 October 1969. Voter turnout was 81.7%.-Results:¹ Meir Avizohar defected from the National List to the Alignment² Avner Shaki left the National Religious Party and remained a single MK...
the party retained its two seats, but did not join the governing coalition.
For the 1973 elections
Israeli legislative election, 1973
The Elections for the eighth Knesset were held on 31 December 1973. Voter turnout was 78.6%.-Results:1 Aryeh Eliav left the Alignment and merged with Ratz to form Ya'ad - Civil Rights Movement...
the party joined with Agudat Yisrael again to recreate the Religious Torah Front
Religious Torah Front
The Religious Torah Front was a political alliance in Israel composed of Agudat Yisrael and Poalei Agudat Yisrael.-History:The Religious Torah Front was formed when the Ultra-orthodox parties Agudat Yisrael and Poalei Agudat Yisrael decided to fight the 1955 elections on a joint list.In the...
, which won five seats. However, the faction split on 15 March 1977, with Poalei Agudat Yisrael taking two of the five seats. In the 1977 elections
Israeli legislative election, 1977
The Elections for the ninth Knesset were held on 17 May 1977. For the first time in Israeli political history, the right-wing, led by Likud, won the election, ending almost 30 years of rule by the left-wing Alignment and its predecessor, Mapai...
the party won only one seat. In the next elections in 1981
Israeli legislative election, 1981
Elections for the tenth Knesset were held in Israel on 30 June 1981. Despite last minute polls suggesting a victory for Shimon Peres's Alignment, Menachem Begin's Likud won by just one seat...
it failed to cross the electoral threshold by 2,284 votes.
The party's name was briefly resuscitated during the eleventh Knesset
Israeli legislative election, 1984
Elections for the eleventh Knesset were held in Israel on 23 July 1984. Voter turnout was 78.8%. The results saw the Alignment return to being the largest party in the Knesset, a status it had lost in 1977...
when Morasha
Morasha
Morasha , later known as Morasha-Poalei Agudat Yisrael was a small, short-lived religious political party in Israel during the 1980s.-Background:...
, part of the governing coalition, split and former Poalei Agudat Yisrael member Avraham Verdiger
Avraham Verdiger
Avraham Verdiger is a former Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for several ultra-Orthodox parties between 1965 and 1996.-Biography:Born in Łódź in Poland, Verdiger made aliyah as a Zionist returnee to Mandate Palestine in 1947...
renamed his faction Morasha - Poalei Agudat Yisrael
Morasha
Morasha , later known as Morasha-Poalei Agudat Yisrael was a small, short-lived religious political party in Israel during the 1980s.-Background:...
. He merged the party into Agudat Yisrael before the 1988 elections
Israeli legislative election, 1988
Elections for the twelfth Knesset were held in Israel on 1 November 1988. Voter turnout was 79.7%.-Results:1 Five members of the Likud left to form the Party for the Advancement of the Zionist Idea; after two returned, the party was renamed the New Liberal Party...
.
Knesset Members
| Knesset (MKs) |
Knesset Members |
|---|---|
| 1 Israeli legislative election, 1949 Elections for the Constituent Assembly were held in newly independent Israel on 25 January 1949. Voter turnout was 86.9%. Two days after its first meeting on 14 February 1949, legislators voted to change the name of the body to the Knesset... (1949-1951) (3) |
Kalman Kahana Kalman Kahana Kalman Kahana was a long-serving Israeli politician and journalist, and a signatory of the Israeli declaration of independence.He was the brother of Yitzhak Kahan, former President of the Supreme Court of Israel.-Background:... , Binyamin Mintz Binyamin Mintz Binyamin Mintz was an Israeli politician who served briefly as Minister of Postal Services From July 1960 until his death.-Biography:Born in Łódź in the Russian Empire , Mintz studied in a hasidic Ger school and was a member of Young Agudat Israel... , Avraham-Yehuda Goldrat Avraham-Yehuda Goldrat Rabbi Avraham-Yehuda Goldrat was an Israeli journalist and politician who served as a member of the Knesset between 1949 and 1951.-Biography:... |
| 2 Israeli legislative election, 1951 Elections for the second Knesset were held in Israel on 30 July 1951. Voter turnout was 75.1%.-Results:¹ Rostam Bastuni, Avraham Berman and Moshe Sneh left Mapam and set up the Left Faction. Bastuni later returned to Mapam whilst Berman and Sneh joined Maki. Hannah Lamdan and David Livschitz left... (1951-1955) (2) |
Kalman Kahana, Binyamin Mintz |
| 3 Israeli legislative election, 1955 Elections for the third Knesset were held in Israel on 26 July 1955. Voter turnout was 82.8%.-Results:Mapai retained its plurality in the Knesset, although its share of the vote dropped by 5.1 and its share of seats dropped from 47 to 40... (1955-1959) (3) |
Kalman Kahana, Binyamin Mintz, Ya'akov Katz Ya'akov Katz (politician born 1906) Ya'akov Katz was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Religious Torah Front and Poalei Agudat Yisrael between 1955 and 1967.-Biography:... |
| 4 Israeli legislative election, 1959 Elections for the fourth Knesset were held in Israel on 3 November 1959. Voter turnout was 81.5%.-Results:¹ The General Zionists and the Progressive Party merged to form the Liberal Party.... (1959-1961) (3) |
Kalman Kahana, Ya'akov Katz, Binyamin Mintz (replaced Shlomo-Ya'akov Gross Shlomo-Ya'akov Gross Shlomo-Ya'akov Gross was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Agudat Yisrael and the Religious Torah Front in several spells between 1959 and 1981.-Biography:... of Agudat Yisrael) |
| 5 Israeli legislative election, 1961 Elections for the fifth Knesset were held in Israel on 15 August 1961. Voter turnout was 81.6%.-Results:¹ Eight MKs broke away from Mapai to establish Rafi² Herut and the Liberal Party merged to form Gahal... (1961-1965) (2) |
Kalman Kahana, Ya'akov Katz |
| 6 Israeli legislative election, 1965 Elections for the sixth Knesset were held in Israel on 1 November 1965. Voter turnout was 85.9%.-Background:Prior to the elections, two major alliances were formed; Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda united to form the Alignment, whilst Herut and the Liberal Party had formed the Gahal alliance towards the end... (1965-1969) (2) |
Kalman Kahana, Ya'akov Katz (replaced by Avraham Verdiger Avraham Verdiger Avraham Verdiger is a former Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for several ultra-Orthodox parties between 1965 and 1996.-Biography:Born in Łódź in Poland, Verdiger made aliyah as a Zionist returnee to Mandate Palestine in 1947... ) |
| 7 Israeli legislative election, 1969 Elections for the seventh Knesset were held in Israel on 28 October 1969. Voter turnout was 81.7%.-Results:¹ Meir Avizohar defected from the National List to the Alignment² Avner Shaki left the National Religious Party and remained a single MK... (1969-1974) (2) |
Kalman Kahana, Avraham Verdiger |
| 8 Israeli legislative election, 1973 The Elections for the eighth Knesset were held on 31 December 1973. Voter turnout was 78.6%.-Results:1 Aryeh Eliav left the Alignment and merged with Ratz to form Ya'ad - Civil Rights Movement... (1974-1977) (2) |
Kalman Kahana, Avraham Verdiger |
| 9 Israeli legislative election, 1977 The Elections for the ninth Knesset were held on 17 May 1977. For the first time in Israeli political history, the right-wing, led by Likud, won the election, ending almost 30 years of rule by the left-wing Alignment and its predecessor, Mapai... (1977-1981) (1) |
Kalman Kahana |
External links
- Poalei Agudat Yisrael Knesset website
- Belchatow candidates list 1936