In first for Israel, ultra-Orthodox party picks a woman to run on its Knesset slate

For the first time in Israel’s history, an ultra-Orthodox political party on Monday selected a woman to run on its Knesset slate for the upcoming election.

The newly formed Charedi Public party, chaired by Moti Leitner, announced that Dr. Nechumi Yaffe, an ultra-Orthodox political psychology researcher, has joined the party, a day before the deadline for parties to submit their final candidate lists to the Central Elections Committee.

In a statement, The Charedi Public said Yaffe has worked with Harvard University on a research project focused on the ultra-Orthodox community and is a senior faculty member and researcher at Tel Aviv University.

In 2020, she was appointed special advisor on Haredi affairs to the National Security Council, with a focus on poverty within the ultra-Orthodox community, the statement said. It added that in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre, she coordinated an emergency response center that assigned volunteers to support families from the Gaza border community.

Leitner welcomed Yaffe to the party, saying that “over 30 years of an educational and academic career, Yaffe has worked to advance our Haredi brothers and sisters.”

It is unclear what position she will have on the party’s list of candidates.

Currently, The Charedi Public is not expected to win any seats at the election as it is polling below the 3.25% electoral threshold.

If elected, Yaffe would not be the first Haredi woman in the Knesset, but would be the first one to represent an ultra-Orthodox party.

The Haredi Public, established last month, presents itself as an alternative to the more traditional Ashkenazi United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Sephardic Shas.

It seeks to fight poverty in the Haredi community and advocates for secular studies, workforce participation, and IDF conscription for anybody who does not study full-time in yeshiva.

The IDF is suffering an ongoing manpower shortage, while around 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18 to 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. Shas and UTJ have pushed for legislation exempting most ultra-Orthodox men from conscription and last month helped pass a law, since frozen by the High Court of Justice, halting the arrest of draft evaders.

Additionally, Haredi schools largely do not teach the core studies necessary for students to eventually enter the workforce, in which ultra-Orthodox men are underrepresented.

According to the Haaretz daily, Yaffe’s selection was the result of a long campaign by Haredi feminist activists.

Pnina Pfeuffer, the founder of The New Haredim activist group, which shares the new party’s ideas, told Haaretz earlier in the week that she was shocked there were initially no women representatives in the party, as she had worked with the new party’s founders in the past.

“It’s not like being angry at Degel HaTorah that doesn’t have women in it. These people are with us, and we work together, so the expectation is that we will be part of it,” she said.

“There was a lot of anger against us; they called us purists,” she added.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.