Chomat Torat Yisrael

This is the issue the party and its leader put first. Porush's interviewers wrote in September 2026 that for him "there was only one central topic" all year: what they called the "conscription decree" ^[13].

• Formal commitment: The party's founding aims include "regularising the legal and judicial status of Torah learners" ^[6].
• Action (as a minister for Agudat Yisrael / UTJ): On 15 July 2025 Porush resigned as Minister of Jerusalem and Jewish Tradition, on the instruction of Agudat Yisrael's Council of Torah Sages, because the draft enlistment bill presented by MK Yuli Edelstein did not meet the Council's demands ^[25]. UTJ left both the government and the coalition at the same time ^{[26, 21]}.
• Action (UTJ, July 2026, before the split): The Haredi parties secured final passage on 13 July 2026 of Basic Law: Torah Study, which anchors Torah study as a foundational value; it passed 63 to 52, in a softened version from which a clause on balancing Torah study against other values was removed ^[42]. The same package included a law suspending, for five months, arrests and criminal proceedings against yeshiva students who had not reported for enlistment, which passed 58 to 54 on 14 July 2026 ^{[44, 85]}. On 3 September 2026 a nine-justice panel of the Supreme Court struck that law down unanimously ^[44]. Porush responded that the ruling was "a direct continuation of the trampling campaign of persecution against the Torah world" and that "no ruling or draconian order will be able to uproot Torah learners from the Gemara" ^[44]. The Knesset record shows Porush voting for Basic Law: Torah Study at its preliminary reading (10 June 2026, 56 for, 43 against), its first reading (1 July 2026, 63 for, 53 against) and its final reading (63 for, 52 against), and for the arrest-freeze law, formally the Security Service Law (Amendment No. 28 – temporary provision) ^{[82, 83, 84, 85]}.
• Action: In December 2024, at a Shlomei Emunim gathering, Porush announced a help centre at Agudat Yisrael's Jerusalem offices for young men facing call-up orders ^[79]. N12 reported on 23 January 2025 recordings in which a hotline representative told a caller not to worry about his call-up order and to avoid places where he might meet police ^[29]. Zman Yisrael reported in February 2025 that callers were told to ignore call-up orders; Porush's response was that the phone service gives advice and guidance "to a person who decides to act according to the instructions of his rabbis" and does not tell anyone how to act ^[79].
• Action: In August 2025 he set up a protest tent outside the attorney general's offices in Jerusalem and held a daytime hunger strike against arrests of yeshiva students who had not reported for service ^{[31, 30]}.
• Statement: On 9 July 2025, in a Knesset speech shortly before his resignation, he said: "If anyone thinks he can twist the Haredi public's arm behind its back and say 'report, enlist, change your way', he is mistaken" ^[71].
• Statement: In December 2025, in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, he said of MK Boaz Bismuth's enlistment bill: "This is a bad draft law; it ought to be torn up" ^[33].
• Statement: In an August 2025 interview he set his terms: "Whoever sits and studies should get a deferral," and asked to "bring back the arrangement that exempts whoever studies" ^[30]. He said he would not visit the IDF's Haredi Hasmonean Brigade because "it would be seen as going against my rabbis" ^[30].
• Statement: In September 2026 he said a solution requires a law "in the format that meets the demands of the members of the Council of Torah Sages, accompanied by a law to bypass the High Court" ^[13]. He cited the recommendation of a professional army committee set up after the outbreak of the war (the "Shakedi committee") to protect full-time learners who study three sessions a day ^{[13, 34]}.
• Background (August 2013, before the period this guide relies on): After meeting senior Defence Ministry officials, he said: "We are not asking for a deferral for those who do not study," and that no Haredi MK defends those who receive a deferral but do not study Torah, while the Haredi public would not accept any law under which a yeshiva student whose Torah study is his only occupation does not receive a deferral ^[80]. This is consistent with his later position that the exemption should cover full-time learners.

Closest option(s): A law letting full-time yeshiva students keep studying instead of serving, with no criminal or financial penalties (anchor-torah-study-exemption).

• Action (UTJ, before the split): The Haredi factions voted for the law that makes the attorney general's legal opinions non-binding on the government. It passed on 15 July 2026 by 65 to 51 according to the Knesset record (Ynet reported 61 to 51) and is due to take effect on 1 January 2027 ^{[43, 86]}. Ynet reported that the Haredi factions voted for it as part of a deal with Prime Minister Netanyahu that also passed the Torah study Basic Law ^{[43, 42]}. The Knesset record shows Porush and all seven UTJ MKs voting for it ^[86].
• Statement (Knesset speech): In the debate on the first reading of this bill on 2 June 2026, Porush said a situation in which "one person, an appointed official not elected by the public, holds unlimited power" is "distorted," called on MKs "not to blink," and ended with: "The Torah learners will win, the rule of the law system will collapse!" ^[37].
• Statement: On 27 May 2026, on Kol Barama radio, he said: "It is incumbent on us to erode the power of the court," and that at "this mountain called the court ... that's where you need to strike and cut it down to size" ^[36].
• Statement: In September 2026 he said: "We have zero trust in the legal system," and that the solution "is to dismantle the dangerous and dictatorial power of the legal system" by legislation, which he said is what the election is about ^[13]. He said UTJ "supports all the moves on the legal matter" and that in the next term many Supreme Court judges and a new attorney general will be appointed ^[13].
• Statement (as minister, March 2023): He said "the aim of the reform is returning power to the representatives the majority of the people chose," while saying he was "for dialogue without preconditions" ^[47].
• Statement (UTJ, November 2022): Leaving coalition consultations at the President's residence, he said: "Without an override clause there will be no government" ^[48]. An override clause would let the Knesset re-enact laws struck down by the court. (See Coalition stance for how this pledge played out.)
• Statement: On 16 June 2026, at a Shlomei Emunim conference, he said of the attorney general that if she "does not stop persecuting the Torah learners, there will be no choice but to use Ehud Barak's words and drive her out with sticks and stones" ^[38].

Closest option(s): Give the government and Knesset more power over the courts, and make the attorney general's opinions non-binding (continue-judicial-changes).

• Action (UTJ, before the split): On 6 July 2026 the Knesset passed in first reading MK Ariel Kallner's bill for a "state-national" commission of inquiry into 7 October 2023. Under the bill, six members would be appointed with the agreement of 80 MKs, or else three by the coalition and three by the opposition, with released hostages or bereaved family members as observers ^[41]. It passed 59 to 0 after the opposition boycotted the vote, and Kikar HaShabbat reported it passed "with Haredi support" ^[41]. Ynet reported that the Haredim voted for it in first reading ^[42]. The Knesset's bill record shows the bill moved to preparation for its second and third readings on 6 July 2026, but no per-MK record of the first-reading vote is published in the Knesset's vote services, so Porush's vote at that reading is not known ^[88].
• Action (Porush's recorded vote): When the same bill passed its preliminary reading on 24 December 2025 by 53 to 48, Porush was the only MK to abstain, while the three Degel HaTorah MKs of UTJ who voted (Asher, Gafni and Maklev) voted for it ^[87].
• Action (Porush's recorded votes on a state commission): On 12 November 2025 Porush voted against three opposition bills to set up a state commission of inquiry into 7 October, all of which failed. He is not recorded as voting on three more such bills on 1 July 2026 ^[95].
• Action/threat (UTJ, before the split): On 27 May 2026 UTJ (through MK Moshe Gafni of Degel HaTorah) told Netanyahu it would vote for an opposition bill to set up a state commission of inquiry if the coalition did not supply a majority for a daycare-subsidy bill; the daycare bill then passed its preliminary reading ^[40]. This threat came from Degel HaTorah's Gafni on behalf of UTJ, not from Porush, and was a bargaining step, not a statement of preference.
• Statement: In October 2026 Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth asked every party how it wants the events of 7 October investigated; UTJ declined to respond ^[53].
• No statement on this question by Porush, Stark or Chomat Torat Yisrael was found.

Closest option(s): The evidence is thin and mixed. UTJ's reported support for the Kallner bill at first reading points to a commission picked through the Knesset with equal coalition–opposition appointment (commission-appointed-by-knesset-balance), and Porush voted against state-commission bills in November 2025. But he abstained when the Kallner bill passed its preliminary reading, UTJ also used support for a state commission as a bargaining threat, and neither UTJ nor Porush has stated a public position. This line is tentative.

• Formal commitment: The party's founding aims are to run public and private affairs "according to the view of the Torah," to "fortify the walls of religion," to protect "the sanctity of Shabbat in the public space," and to preserve "the Jewish character of the land in matters of marriage, conversion and modesty" ^[6].
• Action (UTJ, before the split): The Haredi parties secured passage in July 2026 of Basic Law: Torah Study and of a law cancelling the 2021 kashrut reform, which returned control over kosher certification to the Chief Rabbinate and authorised local rabbis ^{[42, 43, 20]}.
• Statement (as minister, March 2023): Asked about further religion-and-state laws, he said the coalition agreement commits the government to "keep the status quo," which meant returning the arrangements to how they were before High Court rulings and the changes made by the Bennett–Lapid government; once that was done, "we won't need to legislate more laws on the subject" ^[47].
• Statement: In June 2026 he explained that UTJ leans toward the right-wing parties "because we didn't see in Likud's platform bringing in public transport on Shabbat, allowing civil marriage, so we are closer to them" ^[39].
• Statement: In September 2026 he said: "As a Haredi Jew, first and foremost I am committed to the laws of the Torah," and accused the left of having made "persecution of religion and tradition" its main banner ^[13].
• Context (UTJ): The Jerusalem Post summarised UTJ's positions in September 2026 as opposing civil marriage, Shabbat public transport and Shabbat infrastructure work, keeping conversion within the Orthodox establishment, and opposing expanded non-Orthodox prayer at the Western Wall ^[20].

Closest option(s): Give Jewish religious law a bigger role, with Shabbat protected in the public space and marriage and conversion only through Orthodox institutions (strengthen-jewish-character). Porush has also framed some goals as restoring the status quo (keep-status-quo), but the party's founding aims go further.

• Action (UTJ, before the split): UTJ pushed a bill by Deputy Minister Yisrael Eichler to base daycare subsidies on the mother's status rather than the father's, so that families of yeshiva students who have not enlisted would keep the subsidy; it passed a preliminary reading on 27 May 2026 by 44 to 37, according to Ynet, and the Knesset record confirms the tally and shows Porush voting for ^[89]. Porush called it "a significant step toward correcting the terrible injustice done to the families of Torah learners" ^[40]. Ynet reported that the Haredi parties later gave up passing the daycare law in this Knesset in exchange for other laws ^[42].
• Statement: Asked in September 2026 why the Haredi parties did not focus on the cost of food and housing, Porush said the "legal war" against Haredi families is itself "the cruelest cost of living there is": cuts to yeshiva budgets, attempts to cancel daycare subsidies for kollel families, and denial of municipal property-tax (arnona) discounts ^[13]. He said "the next term" should put social-economic demands forward "more forcefully" but "never at the expense of our existential struggle for the Torah world" ^[13].
• Statement: On 20 August 2026 he told an economic conference that the Haredi public, which he said spends more than NIS 51 billion a year, could use its "enormous consumer power" if its spiritual leaders instructed it, in protest at budget cuts to its institutions ^[55].
• Statement: In May 2025, in a Knesset debate on bread and grain price controls, he attacked the attorney general's decision to move children of kollel students who are required to enlist to the end of the queue for subsidised daycare, saying "a sane attorney general would not starve Haredi children as a hobby" ^[72].

Closest option(s): Direct help for households, especially subsidies such as daycare and tax discounts for families (direct-support-for-households). The evidence is about support for Haredi families in particular; no position on competition, imports or general tax cuts was found.

• Background (as Deputy Housing Minister for Agudat Yisrael, 1996–1999, before the period this guide relies on): In 1997 his ministry won "national priority area A" housing benefits for the new town of Harish, which he planned to settle with Hasidic families, and obtained government approval for 600 rental apartments for the Haredi public; Globes reported that Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein then rejected the eligibility criteria drawn up for that project, so it could not go ahead as planned ^[61].
• Statement (as minister, March 2023): In March 2023 he said the government had approved, within two months, "thousands of housing units," including 1,600 in Beitar Illit ^[47].
• Statement: In September 2026 he said Haredi housing "will be at the top of the priorities," and that "the Haredi public needs macro solutions: building huge new cities, massive expansions of existing cities like Beitar, Elad and Beit Shemesh, and allocating commercial industrial zones" for jobs. He promised to "dismantle from the foundation" the planning barriers that keep Haredi zoning plans "stuck for years in planning committees" ^[13].
• Statement: On 24 May 2026, after the Israel Land Authority announced, following a Supreme Court ruling, that men who are required to enlist but have not done so would no longer be eligible for the discounted-price apartment programme ("Dira Behanacha"), Porush said "only heartless lawyers" could write criteria that "discriminate only against the persecuted Torah learners" ^[35].
• Statement: In a September 2026 podcast he hosted Safed's deputy mayor, Nachman Galbach, who presented a vision of making Safed a solution for the Haredi housing shortage ^[15].

Closest option(s): Build much more and faster, mainly by cutting planning barriers and approving new cities and expansions (speed-up-planning-and-construction), with support for keeping Haredi families eligible for discounted-price buyer programmes (direct-help-for-buyers). The proposals are framed around the Haredi community.

• Action (bill): In March 2026 Porush tabled a bill to apply Israeli law, jurisdiction and administration to four cities in Judea and Samaria: Modi'in Illit, Beitar Illit (both Haredi cities), Ma'ale Adumim and Ariel ^[46]. The explanatory notes say these cities are in "the heart of the Israeli consensus," that an earlier bill covering all of Judea and Samaria had been held up by "complex diplomatic circumstances," and that the narrower bill does not give up wider sovereignty in the future ^[46]. Israel Hayom reported that the timing was meant to signal to right-wing Agudat Yisrael voters ^[46]. The bill's progress after tabling was not found.
• Action (Agudat Yisrael faction, before the split): On 22 October 2025 the Knesset passed in preliminary reading, by 25 to 24, a bill by MK Avi Maoz to apply Israeli law and sovereignty to "the areas of settlement in Judea and Samaria" (described by the Times of Israel as a bill "to annex all settlements"). The Times of Israel reported that UTJ "was split down the middle," and an adviser to then-UTJ chairman Goldknopf said the Agudat Yisrael faction (which then included Porush) supported the bill "to highlight the hypocrisy" of a government many of whose ministers had called for applying sovereignty (annexation) ^[45]. The Knesset record confirms the 25 to 24 tally and shows Porush voting for the bill, together with the other three Agudat Yisrael MKs in UTJ (Goldknopf, Tesler and Eichler), while the three Degel HaTorah MKs who voted (Asher, Gafni and Maklev) voted against ^[90].
• Action (other sovereignty bills, as an Agudat Yisrael / UTJ MK): On the same day, 22 October 2025, Porush voted against a bill to apply sovereignty to Ma'ale Adumim, which passed its preliminary reading 31 to 9, and on 31 December 2025 he voted against a bill to apply sovereignty to Beitar Illit, which failed 8 to 45 ^[95]. Both cities are among the four in the bill he tabled in March 2026 ^[46]. The record does not give reasons for votes.
• Contradiction: Porush voted for the July 2025 sovereignty motion and, on 22 October 2025, for the bill to apply sovereignty to all the areas of settlement ^{[97, 90]}. Yet on the same day he voted against applying sovereignty to Ma'ale Adumim, and on 31 December 2025 against applying it to Beitar Illit ^[95]. Agudat Yisrael was outside the coalition at the time of these votes, so they were not coalition-line votes. In March 2026 he tabled a bill to apply Israeli law to both cities ^[46]. No statement by Porush explaining the votes was found.
• Background (Knesset votes, as an Agudat Yisrael / UTJ MK, 2004–2005, before the period this guide relies on): Open Knesset vote records show that Porush voted for a Shas no-confidence motion over the Gaza disengagement plan on 23 February 2004 and against the Prime Minister's statement on the plan on 15 March 2004. On 20 July 2005 he voted for two bills to postpone or suspend the disengagement, which were defeated 43 to 68 and 40 to 69. No vote by him is recorded on the second-reading and reservation votes on the Disengagement Implementation Law on 16 February 2005 (the third-reading vote is not in this dataset) ^{[73, 74]}.
• Statement (as minister, March 2023): He said he worked with Defence Minister Gallant and Finance Minister Smotrich "to advance Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria," and welcomed a government decision "to regularise all the young settlements" ^[47].
• Statement: In September 2026 he said he had "always been an active campaigner on every occasion against the establishment of a Palestinian state," and that after 7 October 2023 the issue "has almost completely come off the agenda" ^[13].

Closest option(s): Apply Israeli sovereignty to part of the area, here the main settlement cities (partial-sovereignty-area-c). Porush's and the Agudat Yisrael faction's recorded votes for applying sovereignty to all settlement areas also fit partial sovereignty, and the faction explained them as a political protest ^{[90, 45]}. He voted against two narrower sovereignty bills in late 2025 before tabling his own ^[95]. No evidence was found of support for dismantling the Palestinian Authority, the other element of full-sovereignty.

No documented position found on what Israel should do in Gaza now. Searches in Hebrew and English (party name, Porush and Stark with "Gaza," "Hamas" and "hostages," Haredi and general news sites) found no statement by the party, Porush or Stark on the post-ceasefire choices. The Jerusalem Post noted in September 2026 that UTJ "has not developed a similarly detailed independent position on Gaza, Lebanon or Iran" ^[20]. Related evidence:

• Action (as minister for Agudat Yisrael / UTJ): In a session that began on 17 January 2025 and ran past midnight, the cabinet approved the hostage-release and ceasefire agreement by 24 to 8. Porush left a written vote in favour before Shabbat; his office said he did so "after personally checking and hearing the position of the members of the Council of Torah Sages" ^[27].
• Statement: In June 2026, after a State Comptroller report that security prisoners had been released back to Gaza because of prison overcrowding, he wrote to the prime minister and ministers calling this "a moral bankruptcy" and urging them to put enforcement into imprisoning Hamas terrorists rather than yeshiva students ^[56].
• Statement: In August 2025, asked about reservists, he described the public as divided between those angry that Hamas was not eliminated and hostage families who feared continued fighting ^[30].
• Statement: He opposes a Palestinian state (see Judea and Samaria) ^[13].

• Statement: In September 2026 Porush said US President Donald Trump "went out with us on two crazy operations in Iran, operations that with open divine help simply saved the State of Israel," and criticised Trump for recently starting to negotiate with Iran while speaking dismissively of Netanyahu, while still preferring Trump to his 2024 opponent ^[13].
• Statement: In August 2025 he said: "We have no interest in bringing down the government in wartime" ^[30].
• No statement on Hezbollah, Lebanon or a regional agreement by Porush, Stark or the party was found. The Jerusalem Post and the Jewish Chronicle both reported in 2026 that UTJ generally takes less defined positions on security and foreign policy ^{[20, 21]}.

Closest option(s): The only evidence is a statement praising the US–Israeli military operations against Iran, which fits keeping up military pressure (military-pressure-until-threats-removed) or pressure combined with US-backed deals (force-plus-us-backed-agreements); it is not enough to choose between them.

No documented position found. Searches in Hebrew and English for Porush, Stark and the party together with "crime in Arab society," "Shin Bet," "murders" and "weapons" returned nothing. The Jerusalem Post and Jewish Chronicle summaries of UTJ's agenda do not mention the issue ^{[20, 21]}. Related, but not on this question: as Minister of Jerusalem in May 2025, Porush refused to transfer about NIS 100 million from his ministry for a programme to train East Jerusalem teachers in the Israeli curriculum, saying the money was meant for employment programmes to reduce economic gaps in East Jerusalem and calling the education plan "a prize for terror" ^[57]. In August 2025 Calcalist reported that his ministry had not carried out any part of the government's East Jerusalem gap-reduction programme in 2024, about NIS 77.4 million; ministry officials said the Finance Ministry had not provided the funding ^[58].

• Formal commitment: The party's aims include securing "the funding and independence of education and Torah institutions without interference in their content" ^[6].
• Dated background (2017; action as Deputy Education Minister for UTJ): In December 2017 the State Comptroller's permits committee refused his request to stay a member of the Independent Education Centre, the network that runs most Haredi schools, while serving as deputy minister; he had argued it should be treated as part of the Education Ministry ^[68]. (See Legal or ethical matters.)
• Statement: In September 2026 he listed as achievements of his ministry the first use of state heritage-preservation funds to renovate a Hasidic Talmud Torah in Jerusalem, and said he would demand that this model of directing government budgets to Haredi projects be extended to more ministries ^[13].

• Dated background (2019; statement): In September 2019, in a radio interview, he said that a special-education child born to Haredi parents "does not get from the State of Israel what an exceptional child gets when born to secular parents." Globes found the claim "half true": most Haredi special-needs pupils study in non-official institutions that received lower budgets, a gap that also affected non-Haredi non-official schools ^[70].
• Statement: In a September 2026 podcast, asked what he would do with an unlimited budget for one goal, he named the lack of adequate help for families of children with special needs ^[15].

• Statement: In September 2026 he said his main goal for the next term is "community independence and expansion": to "strengthen the Haredi local authorities, expand their powers, and give them the budgetary and statutory tools to care for the Haredi resident themselves," so that communities are not dependent on "officials who change" ^[13].
• Statement: He complained that Agudat Yisrael had no branches in Beitar Illit, Beit Shemesh and Elad, which he described as cities with large Hasidic populations ^{[12, 13]}.

• Statement: In September 2026 Porush said he supports holding internal elections ("primaries") in Agudat Yisrael, noting that the last internal elections took place about 50 years ago, and said Shlomei Emunim had held local primaries, including in Jerusalem before the last municipal elections ^[13]. He said he had asked community representatives to renew their confidence in him before the lists were submitted ^[13].

• Action (as minister): On 28 February 2023 he resigned his responsibility for the annual Lag BaOmer gathering at Mount Meron, writing that he had "responsibility without authority"; he withdrew the resignation on 5 March 2023 after the government transferred the powers to him and his project manager ^{[59, 60]}.
• Action (as minister): Calcalist reported in August 2025 that in 2024 his ministry carried out 3 of its 25 budgeted tasks (12%), the lowest rate among ministries, while transferring NIS 40 million for the Meron gathering ^[58].
• Statement: In November 2022 he said Netanyahu would not make changes on the Temple Mount, as UTJ colleagues said they would not be part of such changes ^[48].

• Statement: On 27 May 2026 he called on police officers "who have a little faith and tradition" to say they do not want to carry out orders to arrest yeshiva students ^[36].
• Statement: In May 2026, after army briefings about a shortage of soldiers, he said the briefings raised concern that "various parties decided to turn the army into a political tool in the hands of those who persecute Torah learners" ^[34].
• Statement: In August 2025 he warned: "A war between brothers is developing here between Haredim and secular people," and said that if yeshiva students are taken from their homes, the public cannot be told how to protest ^{[32, 30]}.

• Action (as an Agudat Yisrael / UTJ MK): When the law allowing the death penalty for terrorists passed its final reading on 30 March 2026, by 62 to 48, Porush was the only MK to abstain ^[95].

• Statement: In June 2024, after the Supreme Court ruled that the state must enlist yeshiva students, he wrote that the ruling "necessarily leads to two states here," one as it is now, and "another state in which the yeshiva students will continue to study Torah" ^[28].
• Statement: In September 2026 he called on Haredi voters to vote, citing the founders of Agudat Yisrael who called for Knesset representatives "who will fight for Judaism, Shabbat and the holy Torah" ^[14].