HaPoel HaMizrahi
HaPoel HaMizrahi
Founded in 1922
One of the two founding parties of the National Religious Party (NRP or Mafdal), HaPoel HaMizrahi (The "Mizrahi Worker") was founded in 1922 as an organization of national religious workers working together to build the Land of Israel in the spirit of Torah and on the foundation of labor. The party featured certain characteristics of a "people's party" and focused on both social activity (through the youth movement B’nei Akiva and the sports union Elitzur) and settlement activity, through which the Religious Kibbutz movement and the Union of Moshavim of HaPoel HaMizrahi were established. HaPoel HaMizrahi was the more leftist stream of the two parent parties of religious Zionism (the other party was the Mizrahi) both in political and in economic terms (its voters were largely workers).
In the elections for the First Knesset, HaPoel HaMizrahi ran together with another three parties as part of the United Religious Front. After the Front fell apart during the First Knesset, HaPoel HaMizrahi ran independently in the 1951 elections and received eight seats. In 1955, prior to the elections for the Third Knesset, HaPoel HaMizrahi joined forces with the Mizrahi party to form the National Religious Party.
| Election Year | Votes Count | Number Of Seats | Share Of Votes | List Of Candidates | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 46,347 | 8 | 6.8 |
Candidates
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Note that the list of candidates in this table is in Hebrew.
Moshe Shapira, Zerach Warhaftig, Yosef Burg
Moshe Shapira, the representative of HaPoel HaMizrahi in the first few governments, held three portfolios: the ministries of Health, Immigration, and Interior. In the governments that served during the Second Knesset, the representation of the party increased to two Ministers, and Yosef Burg joined Shapira.