Q&A: A New Haredi Party
A New Haredi Party
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I wanted to ask whether you think that ahead of the next elections in October 2026, this is the right and appropriate time to establish a new Haredi party,
after the complete failure of the Haredi Knesset members and the loss of leadership by the Council?
And if so, are you involved in the plans or in The Third Path?
I think it would be worthwhile to get this organized well before the elections so that we can enter the public consciousness….
Answer
Appropriate in what sense? Politically? Are you asking whether such a party has a chance? In my estimation, absolutely not. The Haredim, especially those who oppose the Haredi establishment and its dictates, lack courage and backbone and are not prepared to come out publicly, and even less so to put the appropriate slip in the ballot box, even if nobody sees it. In my estimation, the electorate willing to vote differently is negligible. Therefore, in The Third Path we decided not to enter the political field at this point, but rather to work for the longer term in the hope that deep and prolonged plowing will bring change and create the possibility of a different reality. Of course, if something like that does arise, it would certainly be worthy of support. The very fact that you are talking about a different Haredi party is itself telling, and expresses part of the problem I am talking about. Why should this be a Haredi party at all? What is supposed to be Haredi about it? The color of its voters’ suits? After all, in terms of its platform it should be like a sane religious but non-Haredi party. Or even a general party that works for an equal and reasonable situation and has religious and Haredi supporters.
Discussion on Answer
The Rabbi is talking about his grand vision of religious intellectual renewal and says there is no electorate for that,
but I’m talking about solving the current situation in practice: the Haredi parties have failed in their only role,
and there is an opportunity to establish something new that does not need, in the short term, to solve issues like the separation of religion and state that the Rabbi wants, and other things that are considered by the public to be utterly repulsive, but rather to try to reach common ground on more practical issues: core curriculum studies (especially now that there is an awakening among institutions to introduce core studies, and there was also the Belz framework that failed were it not for Belz’s dependence on Degel in order to run), professional training, military enlistment in Haredi-style frameworks, support for models of yeshiva high schools and state-Haredi schools.
Not to storm the capitol, but to try to solve core problems affecting a large electorate, and to provide an alternative infrastructure for reviving the Orthodox and Haredi model.
There is no electorate for that either, and for the same reason.
With all the respect I have for Rabbi Michi, it seems to me that here the honorable Rabbi has fallen into excessive prettifying or over-justification.
Even if we do not agree with the current definition of what "Haredi" is and want to change it, one cannot ignore that this concept has real implications beyond the color of the suit.
A Haredi person, for example, is someone who according to his outlook (whether rightly or not… that’s not the point), when Rabbi Amsalem, a member of The Third Path, registers complete gentiles as Jews — he is committing an injustice, breaching a boundary, and causing destruction whose negative consequences will last for generations. Therefore, a movement like The Third Path cannot be considered “Haredi” according to the Haredi definition and outlook. Consequently, it also cannot be a "Haredi party," meaning a party that answers the halakhic and social needs of someone called "Haredi."
It may be that problems in logical thinking and reading comprehension, together with nonsensical declarations of loyalty, are a distinctly Haredi characteristic. That is further proof that The Third Path cannot be considered a Haredi party.
What do you mean? Haredim have their own outlook (without getting into whether they’re right or not), so they support Knesset members who also hold their views (like their leaders / great rabbis).
[And sometimes there are also halakhic concerns (according to Haredi rabbis) — if I vote for someone who will pass a law that is forbidden, then I have a share in it, God forbid.]