The Religious Torah Front was a political alliance in Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 composed of Agudat Yisrael and Poalei Agudat Yisrael.

History

The Religious Torah Front was formed when the 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 ....

 parties Agudat Yisrael and Poalei Agudat Yisrael decided to fight 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...

 on a joint list.

In the election the party won 4.7% of the vote and six seats, an improvement on the 3.6% (five seats) won by the parties individually 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...

, but were not included in 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. During the Knesset session the party changed its name to Agudat Yisrael - Poalei Agudat Yisrael. However, they changed it back to Religious Torah Front before 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....

.

In the 1959 ballot, the party again won 4.7% of the vote and six seats but remained outside the government. Due to internal disagreements, the party split into its constituent parts before the 1961 elections

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...

, with Agudat Yisrael taking four of the six seats and Poalei Agudat Yisrael the other two.

The party was reformed 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...

, in which it won 3.8% of the vote and five seats. Despite its poor showing, the party was the fourth largest in a Knesset

Knesset

The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

 dominated by the Alignment

Alignment (political party)

The Alignment was an alliance of the major left-wing parties in Israel between the 1960s and 1990s. It was established in 1965 as an alliance of Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda but was dissolved three years later when the two parties and Rafi formally merged into the Israeli Labor Party...

 (51 seats) and Likud

Likud

Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...

 (39 seats). However, the party split again during the Knesset session, with Agudat Yisrael taking three seats and Poalei Agudat Yisrael two. Agudat Israel eventually caused the government to fall at the end of 1976 by bringing a motion of no-confidence after the Israeli Air Force

Israeli Air Force

The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the State of Israel and the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence...

 had breached the Sabbath

Shabbat

Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...

.

Knesset members

Knesset (MKs)	Knesset Members
3rd 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... (6)	Zalman Ben-Ya'akov Zalman Ben-Ya'akov Zalman Ben-Ya'akov was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Agudat Yisrael and the Religious Torah Front between 1953 and 1959.-Biography:... , 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:... , 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:... , Yitzhak-Meir Levin Yitzhak-Meir Levin Rabbi Yitzhak-Meir Levin was an Haredi politician. He had political roles in Poland and Israel. One of 37 people to sign the Israeli declaration of independence, he served in several Israeli cabinets, and was a longtime leader and Knesset minster for Agudath Israel and related... , Shlomo Lorincz Shlomo Lorincz Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz was a former Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Agudat Yisrael from 1951 until 1984, and a close confident of many gedolim.-Biography:... , 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...
4th 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.... (6)	Kalman Kahana, Ya'akov Katz, Yitzhak-Meir Levin, Shlomo Lorincz, Binyamin Mintz, Menachem Porush Menachem Porush Menachem Porush was an Israel politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Agudat Yisrael and its alliances between 1959 and 1975, and again from 1977 until 1994.-Biography:...
8th 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... (5)	Yehuda Meir Abramowicz Yehuda Meir Abramowicz Yehuda Meir Abramowicz was an Israeli rabbi and politician. He served as general secretary of Agudat Yisrael, which he represented in the Knesset from 1972 until 1981, and as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset between 1977 and 1981... , Kalman Kahana, Shlomo Lorincz, Menachem Porush (replaced by Shlomo-Jacob Gross), 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...

External links

• Religious Torah Front Knesset website