MIZRAHI

acronym for Merkaz Ruhani (Hebrew: Spiritual Centre), religious movement within the World Zionist Organization and formerly a political party within Zionism and in Israel. It was founded in 1902 by Rabbi Yitzhaq Ya'aqov Reines of Lida, Russia, to promote Jewish religious education within the framework of Zionist nationalism; its traditional slogan was The Land of Israel, for the people of Israel, according to the Torah of Israel. It became the principal party of the Orthodox religious Zionists. Though a minority party, Mizrahi wielded a disproportionate influence in Zionism, because of both its religiohistorical weight and its hold on the masses of Orthodox Jews in eastern Europe. In post-World War I Palestine, it played an active role in the Jewish community, establishing religious schools and firmly backing the sole authority of the chief rabbinate over matters of personal status among Jews, particularly marriage and divorce. Younger Orthodox elements founded ha-Po'el ha-Mizrahi (the Mizrahi Worker Party) in 1922. After the creation of Israel in 1948, the Mizrahi became an influential partner with the Mapai party in coalition governments with the Israel Labour Party, then the country's largest political party, which could not obtain an absolute majority in the Knesset (Parliament) without allying with the Mizrahi. The Mizrahi movement united with ha-Po'el ha-Mizrahi in 1956 to form the National Religious Party (Miflegit Datit Leumit). This Mizrahi bloc consistently received about 10 percent of the votes cast in Knesset elections and participated in almost every coalition government from the founding of Israel in 1948. It was generally flexible on defense and foreign-policy matters in return for the coalition partner's support of Mizrahi's Orthodox religio-social agenda. Though formerly allied with Labour, it went into opposition in 1973 and allied with the conservative Likud from 1977. The National Religious Party's representation in the Knesset eventually fell, however, leaving it little influence.