United Torah Judaism

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United Torah Judaism is an Israeli electoral alliance of the two main ultra-Orthodox Haredi political parties:

  • Degel HaTorah (Banner [of] the Torah), primarily made up of non-Hasidic Haredi Ashkenazi Jews
  • Agudat Israel (Union [of] Israel), primarily made up of the followers of Hasidism in Israel, and also consisting of Ashkenazi Jews. The leading members of this party are the followers of the Ger, Vizhnitz, Boston, and Sadigura Hasidim.

Though the two parties often disagree on major issues, they agree on most of them, and therefore initially formed the alliance in 1992 to maximize the number of seats available in the Knesset under Israel's election process. Usually, they win around six seats in the Knesset (though in recent elections, most recently 2021, it has increased its membership to seven seats). In dividing the seats between them, Agudat Israel tends to win more votes individually and therefore gets first preference.

Although disagreeing with Shas on issues, the alliance tends to vote with them in most cases due to their common interests in representing the most observant in the Jewish community, and during the April 2019 election the two groups formed an electoral alliance to maximize representation in the Knesset (they did not continue the alliance for the following two elections).