Overview
- The Haredi Public announced Monday that Dr. Nechumi Yaffe will run second on its 26th Knesset ticket, marking the first time a woman appears on the slate of an ultra‑Orthodox party running in Israel’s national election.
- Yaffe is a senior Tel Aviv University researcher in political psychology who spent the past year on a Harvard research project, served as a 2020 adviser on Haredi affairs to Israel’s National Security Council, and organized a post‑Oct.7 Haredi emergency response effort.
- Party chair Moti Leitner publicly welcomed Yaffe’s entry and praised her decades of work in Haredi education and community service, describing her as a figure of outreach and governance experience.
- Final slate filings and recent polls show HaTzibur HaCharedi is likely below the 3.25% electoral threshold, roughly 150,000 votes, so the nomination’s practical impact depends on whether the list can marshal enough support to win seats.
- Yaffe’s nomination reflects wider fractures inside the Haredi world over secular schooling, national service and generational leadership after recent rabbinic slate reshuffles, and it could alter representation, coalition math, and community debates if the party crosses the threshold.