United Religious Front

{{Infobox political party

|name = United Religious Front

|native_name = {{Script/Hebrew|חזית דתית מאוחדת}}

| logo = United Religious Front.svg

| logo_size = 90px

|chairman =

|founded = 1949

|dissolved = 1951 (nationally)

|merger =

|split =

|merged =

|affiliation1_title = Alliance of

|affiliation1 = Agudat Yisrael, Hapoel HaMizrachi, Mizrachi, Poalei Agudat Yisrael and the Union of Religious Independents

|colorcode = {{party color|United Religious Front}}

|seats1_title = Most MKs

|seats1 = 16 (1949–1951)

|seats2_title = {{nowrap|Fewest MKs}}

|seats2 = 16 (1949–1951)

|symbol = {{Script/Hebrew|ב}}
{{Script/Hebrew|בגד}} (1978 Tel Aviv council election){{cite web |title=רשומות ילקוט הפרסומים |url=https://www.nevo.co.il/Law_word/law10/yalkut-2486.pdf|website=www.nevo.co.il |access-date=29 July 2021 }}
{{Script/Hebrew|שגב}} (1989 Tel Aviv council election){{cite web |title=רשומות ילקוט הפרסומים |url=https://www.nevo.co.il/Law_word/law10/yalkut-3628.pdf |website=www.nevo.co.il |access-date=24 July 2021 }}

|country = Israel

|ideology= Ultra-Orthodox interest

}}

The United Religious Front ({{Langx|he|חֲזִית דָּתִית מְאוּחֶדֶת}}, Hazit Datit Meuhedet) was a political alliance of the four major religious parties in Israel, as well as the Union of Religious Independents, formed to contest the 1949 elections.

History

The idea of a united religious front had been discussed a decade prior between Agudat Yisrael and Mizrachi, although both attempts in 1938 and 1939 were aborted.{{Cite journal|last=Edelheit|first=Abraham J.|title=The Holocaust and the Rise of Israel: A Reassessment Reassessed |date=2000|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25834471|journal=Jewish Political Studies Review|volume=12|issue=1/2|page=107|jstor=25834471 |issn=0792-335X}} The formal URF was formed as an alliance of all four major religious parties (Mizrachi, Hapoel HaMizrachi, Agudat Yisrael and Poalei Agudat Yisrael),{{Cite journal|last=Don-Yehiya|first=Eliezer|date=1984|title=Religious Leaders in the Political Arena: The Case of Israel|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4282994|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|volume=20|issue=2|pages=154–171|doi=10.1080/00263208408700578 |jstor=4282994 |issn=0026-3206}}{{Cite journal|last1=Rowley|first1=Charles K.|last2=Taylor|first2=Jennis|date=2006|title=The Israel and Palestine Land Settlement Problem, 1948-2005: An Analytical History|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30026634|journal=Public Choice|volume=128|issue=1/2|pages=85|doi=10.1007/s11127-006-9045-9 |jstor=30026634 |s2cid=143910569 |issn=0048-5829}} the former two being Zionist and the latter two being non-Zionist and also viewed as more religiously conservative.{{Cite journal|last1=Weitz|first1=Yechiam|last2=Weitz|first2=Yehiam|date=2005|title=The Road to the "Upheaval": A Capsule History of the Herut Movement, 1948-1977|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30245767|journal=Israel Studies|volume=10|issue=3|pages=54–86|doi=10.2979/ISR.2005.10.3.54 |jstor=30245767 |issn=1084-9513}}{{Cite journal|last=Johnston|first=Scott D.|date=1962|title=Election Politics and Social Change in Israel|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4323495|journal=Middle East Journal|volume=16|issue=3|pages=309–327|jstor=4323495 |issn=0026-3141}} One of the demands by the more stringently religious factions before agreeing to form the URF was the exclusion of women from party lists because "the woman's place is in the home."{{Cite journal|last1=Weiss|first1=Shevach|last2=Yishai|first2=Yael|date=1980|title=Women's Representation in Israeli Political Elites|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4467082|journal=Jewish Social Studies|volume=42|issue=2|pages=172|jstor=4467082 |issn=0021-6704}} It also included the Union of Religious Independents.

The alliance contested the 1949 election, the first after independence, in which it won 16 seats,{{Cite journal|last=Oren|first=Stephen|date=1973|title=Continuity and Change in Israel's Religious Parties|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4325020|journal=Middle East Journal|volume=27|issue=1|page=37|jstor=4325020 |issn=0026-3141}} making it the third largest in the Knesset.{{Cite journal|last=Peretz|first=Don|date=1960|title=Reflections on Israel's Fourth Parliamentary Elections|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4323198|journal=Middle East Journal|volume=14|issue=1|pages=28|jstor=4323198 |issn=0026-3141}} The initial allocation of seats between the parties saw Hapoel HaMizrachi take seven seats, Mizrachi take four, Poalei Agudat Yisrael three and Agudat Yisrael two. The alliance joined David Ben-Gurion's Mapai party in forming the coalition of the first government of Israel, alongside the Progressive Party, Sephardim and Oriental Communities and the Democratic List of Nazareth. There was initially tension concerning matters over separation of religion and state, but the URF decided to initially compromise in order to join the cabinet, in hopes of being "able to fight, through the political institutions of the Jewish State, for the full domination of traditional law in all of Israel, as a maximum objective."{{Cite journal|last=Baker|first=Dwight L.|date=1965|title=Israel and Religious Liberty|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23913703|journal=Journal of Church and State|volume=7|issue=3|pages=406|doi=10.1093/jcs/7.3.403 |jstor=23913703 |issn=0021-969X}}

However, the grouping created problems in the governing coalition due to its differing attitudes. Among the many Holocaust survivors emigrating to the new state were some people who had non-Jewish spouses, mothers, children or other family members. Initially, Haim-Moshe Shapira of the URF, who was Minister of Immigration in the cabinet, attempted to declare that non-Jews must first convert before settling. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion objected and insisted that "If the family goes to the Land of Israel, they will be in a Jewish environment, and the children will be Jewish children, and I don't care if the father or mother is in origin of a different race." Ben-Gurion was backed by other ministers such as Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit. Nonetheless, following compromise between the two camps, the Knesset passed a relatively ambiguous aliyah law on 5 July 1950 which satisfied the religious side of the dispute.{{Cite journal|last=Waxman|first=Chaim I.|date=2013|title=Multiculturalism, Conversion, and the Future of Israel as a Modern State|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43771843|journal=Israel Studies Review|volume=28|issue=1|pages=37–38|doi=10.3167/isr.2013.280104 |jstor=43771843 |issn=2159-0370}}

On 13 June 1950, the URF abstained from the 50–30 Knesset vote to indefinitely postpone the adoption of a constitution, due in great part to the fact that the ultra-Orthodox factions condemned the idea of a constitution that was not based on the Torah and Talmud.{{Cite journal|last=Kraines|first=Oscar|date=1957|title=Review of Israel's Emerging Constitution 1948-1951|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4465526|journal=Jewish Social Studies|volume=19|issue=1/2|pages=77|jstor=4465526 |issn=0021-6704}} The URF had differing attitudes towards education in the new immigrant camps and the religious education system. It also demanded that Ben-Gurion close the Rationing and Supply 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 1951, MP Rabbi Mordechai Nurock of the URF proposed what would later become Holocaust Remembrance Day.{{Cite journal|last=Baumel|first=Judith Tydor|date=1997|title=Bridging Myth and Reality: The Absorption of She'erit Hapletah in Eretz Yisrael, 1945-48|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4283872|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|volume=33|issue=2|pages=381–382|doi=10.1080/00263209708701157 |jstor=4283872 |issn=0026-3206}}

After elections were called for the second Knesset in 1951, the grouping disbanded into its individual parties that fought the election separately. Attempts to form a religious coalition in ensuing years was complicated by disunity and disputation.{{Cite journal|last1=Adlerstein|first1=Yitzchok|last2=Angel|first2=Marc D.|last3=Berger|first3=David|last4=Blau|first4=Rivkah Teitz|last5=Bleich|first5=Judith|last6=Breuer|first6=Mordechai|last7=Buchwald|first7=Ephraim|last8=Bulka|first8=Reuven P.|last9=Cohen|first9=Alfred|last10=Feldman|first10=Ilan|last11=Geller|first11=Victor|date=1998|title=[Responses]|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23261690|journal=Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought|volume=32|issue=4|page=42|jstor=23261690 |issn=0041-0608}}{{Cite journal|last=Rustow|first=Dankwart A.|date=1985|title=Elections and Legitimacy in the Middle East|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1046386|journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science|volume=482|pages=143–144|doi=10.1177/0002716285482001008 |jstor=1046386 |s2cid=145281269 |issn=0002-7162}} In 1952, Agudat Yisrael left the coalition government following a dispute over conscription of religious females to the Israel Defense Forces, with the other three parties of the former URF remaining in the fourth Ben-Gurion cabinet.{{Cite journal|last=Rubin|first=Aviad|date=2013|title=Integration of Religion in Democratizing Societies: Lessons from the Israeli Experience|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5703/shofar.31.2.31|journal=Shofar|volume=31|issue=2|page=41|jstor=10.5703/shofar.31.2.31 |issn=0882-8539}}

However, the United Religious Front was retained at the local level, and contested the local elections in Tel Aviv as late as 2003.