Manhigut Yehudit ( he, מנהיגות יהודית, "

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish Leadership") is a movement started by

Moshe Feiglin Moshe Zalman Feiglin ( he, מֹשֶׁה זַלְמָן פֶייגְּלִין, born 31 July 1962) is an Israeli politician and activist, and the leader of libertarian Zionist party Zehut. A member of Likud, he headed the Manhigut Yehudit (''Jew ...

and Shmuel Sackett to lead the State of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

with, in their words, "authentic Jewish values". This has been widely interpreted, both by Manhigut supporters and outside observers, as

Orthodox Judaism Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...

, but without a

Galut The Jewish diaspora ( he, תְּפוּצָה, təfūṣā) or exile (Hebrew: ; Yiddish: ) is the dispersion of Israelites or Jews out of their ancient ancestral homeland (the Land of Israel) and their subsequent settlement in other parts of th ...

or Exile Mentality. The movement opposes religious and secular coercion, and wants Jewish identity, as prescribed by the

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

, and authentic Jewish teachings to become Israel's official culture. In 2005, Manhigut Yehudit became the largest faction within the Likud Central Committee, the body that decides

Likud Likud ( he, הַלִּיכּוּד, HaLikud, The Consolidation), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement, is a major centre-right to right-wing political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon ...

Party policy. In 2014, however, Feiglin and the faction's other candidates, Michael Foy and Shai Malka, suffered a crushing defeat in the party primaries, resulting in Feiglin and his followers quitting Likud and announcing the intention to form a new party with the name

Zehut Zehut () was a right-libertarian and nationalist political party in Israel founded in 2015 by Moshe Feiglin. Its platform was centered around promoting individual liberty, including economic freedom, and annexing the West Bank. The party also a ...

- Tnua Yehudit Yisraelit (Identity - Israeli Jewish movement).

Background

The party applied to run in the

1999 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1999. * 1999 electoral calendar Africa * 1999 Algerian presidential election * 1999 Botswana general election * 1999 Beninese parliamentary election * 1999 Central African Republic presidential elect ...

as an independent party with the election symbol , but pulled out before election day. In the 2003 elections, Feiglin was refused permission to run on the Likud list by the

Central Elections Committee The Israeli Central Elections Committee ( he, ועדת הבחירות המרכזית, ''Va'adet HaBehirot HaMerkazit'') is the body charged under the Knesset Elections Law of 1969 to carry out the elections for the upcoming Knesset. The committe ...

as Israeli law that states that a person convicted of a crime of "moral turpitude" within the last seven years may not be elected to the Knesset (Feiglin was convicted of blocking Israeli roads in acts of

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...

to protest the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993;

in the early 1990s as a co-leader of the

Zo Artzeinu Zo Artzeinu (, ''This is our land'') was a right-wing nationalist political protest movement created and led by Moshe Feiglin and Shmuel Sackett in Israel to block Israeli land concessions to the Arabs in the early 1990s, especially the Oslo Acco ...

movement). Otherwise, he would have taken 38th place on Likud's list and been elected to the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

. There was considerable controversy regarding whether blocking roads in political protest could be considered "moral turpitude". Manhigut Yehudit has received much media attention, and has been the subject of controversy: It has been criticized by the Israeli left and center for its close ties to the radical Israeli right of

Religious Zionism Religious Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת דָּתִית, Romanization of Hebrew, translit. ''Tziyonut Datit'') is an ideology that combines Zionism and Orthodox Judaism. Its adherents are also referred to as ''Dati Leumi'' ( "National Religiou ...

. Conversely, the same radical right has characterized the Manhigut project as "naive" in thinking that it can re-shape Israeli politics by "infiltrating" the largely secular (and debatably, pragmatic) right-wing

party. Some critics also say that Manhigut diverts valuable resources and supporters that could otherwise be going into other right-wing organizations. Another complaint has been that the Israeli public is significantly more likely to vote for a secular right-Likud than a national-religious one. Despite all this, Manhigut has a devoted following, both in Israel and abroad, many of whom see Feiglin's "moderate" and long-term approach to work within the

parliamentary system A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

(and specifically, to slowly and eventually gain control of the Likud as a powerful bloc) as refreshingly innovative, if not ingenious. They also praise the movement's commitment to Israeli

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

and non-violence (although some detractors note, ironically, that the ultimate goal of Manhigut seems to be to use democracy to replace Israeli law with

Halakha ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...

Jewish philosophy

Moshe Feiglin has defined Jewishness as primarily being a culture and people, not merely a "religion", citing that the Torah refers to Jews as "Am Yisrael" or "The Nation of Israel". In an interview, Feiglin strongly criticized the "modern" tendency to view Judaism through the prism of "only" being a religion, going so far as to link the practice with one of the biggest villains in Jewish tradition,

Haman Haman ( ; also known as Haman the Agagite or Haman the evil) is the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who according to the Hebrew Bible was an official in the court of the Persian empire under King Ahasuerus, commonly identified as Xerxes I ...

: :''...But in fact, the concept "religious" is one taken from other cultures - mainly Christianity - and is totally unsuited to Jewish culture. The first person to use this concept was Haman the Wicked. '... and they do not observe the King's religion', Haman said to Ahashverosh, in order to justify his version of the Final Solution. Christianity, which separated religion from life, created the concept of religion in its Western connotation, with which we are familiar. But Judaism isn't a religion. Judaism is a culture, a nation, a country, the Torah. It is a complete way of life, an important part of which is the observance of Mitzvot.

' Manhigut's mission statement, as expressed by co-founder Shmuel Sackett, is "''Turning the state of the Jews into the Jewish State''"

Its ultimate vision and goal is to, in the words of the daily

Aleinu ''Aleinu'' (Hebrew: , lit. "upon us", meaning "t isour duty") or ''Aleinu leshabei'ach'' (Hebrew: "t isour duty to praise Names_of_God_in_Judaism.html" "title="/nowiki>Names of God in Judaism">God]"), meaning "it is upon us" or "it is our obligat ...

prayer, ''"perfect the world in the Kingdom of the Almighty".'' All of the organization's newsletters end with this statement.

Manhigut post-Kadima

Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon (; ; ; also known by his diminutive Arik, , born Ariel Scheinermann, ; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. S ...

's 2005 split from the Likud resulted in a power vacuum among the leadership of his former party. In December 2005, the top three favorites running for Likud Party Chairman were

Binyamin Netanyahu Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...

and

Silvan Shalom Zion Silvan Shalom ( he, ציון סילבן שלום, born 4 August 1958) is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 1992 and 2015. He held several prominent ministerial positions, including being Vice Pri ...

, with

running a distant third. While Feiglin and his supporters remained optimistic about his chances of winning the position, in the last weeks before the primary, there were calls from both the center-right and the

Religious Zionist Religious Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת דָּתִית, translit. ''Tziyonut Datit'') is an ideology that combines Zionism and Orthodox Judaism. Its adherents are also referred to as ''Dati Leumi'' ( "National Religious"), and in Israel, the ...

movement for him to withdraw from the race. The present Yesha Council Chairman, Bentzi Lieberman, who endorsed Netanyahu, went so far as to characterize Feiglin's plan to co-opt the Likud as a "moral failure

In response, Feiglin compared his detractors with "a battered woman who covers the bruises on her face with make-up and keeps going back to her husband

In mid-December, Netanyahu won the election for Chairman with 47% of the vote. Shalom came in second with 32%. Feiglin won 12.5% of the votes, up from 3% the first time he ran in 2003. Two years later, in 2007, he came in second behind Netanyahu, with 24% of the vote. Many left-wing and centrist politicians, as well as some journalists, agreed with Feiglin's assessment, asserting that while he did not come close to winning, the comparatively large number of votes cast for him indicated a radical shift among Likud voters, which could possibly result in changing both its vision and image in the future. Several prominent Likud members also denounced Feiglin's gains as indicative of a serious problem in the party, although others attempted to de-emphasize Feiglin's influence within the Likud. Feiglin responded by accusing his Likud critics of "

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

". :''With all due respect, I also think that there is a certain small element of anti-Semitism here. I have been in the Likud for eight years already, and I haven't seen any such demonization efforts directed at any other element. We are all loyal members of the Likud, and renew our membership every year. Let's put the cards on the table: I believe that if I didn't have a

kippa A , , or , plural ), also called ''yarmulke'' (, ; yi, יאַרמלקע, link=no, , german: Jarmulke, pl, Jarmułka or ''koppel'' ( yi, קאפל ) is a brimless cap, usually made of cloth, traditionally worn by Jewish males to fulfill the c ...

and beard, this demonization would not exist, and it's about time to put an end to this nonsense.''

Rise

Feiglin ran against Netanyahu in the

2012 Likud leadership election An election for the leadership of Likud was held on 31 January 2012. Background Incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu was expected from the beginning, failing a political crisis to run for re-election. Silvan Shalom and Moshe Feiglin were touted as pot ...

, held on January 31, 2012, and again received 23% of the vote, and went on to serve as deputy speaker in the 19th Knesset. However, the faction suffered a serious setback in the Likud primary of December 31, 2014, held in the run-up to the 2015 Knesset elections, when he fell to the 36th position on the Likud's electoral list, making it unlikely he would be returned to the Knesset, as the party only had 18 seats in the 19th Knesset, and its most optimistic goal is to win a maximum of 24 seats in the 20th Knesset. Feiglin and his followers quit Likud in the wake of the primary, announcing their intention to found a new party. He was unable to form a new party in time for the 2015 Israeli election in March.

External links

Manhigut Yehudit's WebsiteManhigut Yehudit's Hebrew WebsiteA monthly journal published by Manhigut Yehudit in HebrewA monthly journal published by Manhigut Yehudit in EnglishMoshe Feiglin's Website

References