History
The National Religious Party and the National Union originally allied in order to run a joint list for the 2006 elections. On 3 November 2008 it was announced that the NRP and the Moledet and Tkuma factions of the Union would merge to form a new party. However, the Ahi and Hatikva factions of the Union rejected the merger – their leaders, Effi Eitam and Aryeh Eldad respectively, were both opposed to the party being a religious one, while Eitam was also unhappy that the new party would not hold primaries.
The party was initially nameless. Five names were proposed: HaBayit HaYehudi ("Jewish Home"), Shorashim ("Roots"), Atzma'ut ("Independence"), Shalem ("Whole"), and Amihai ("My Nation Lives"). In an on-line ballot, the members chose "Jewish Home".
Ya'akov Amidror was chosen to head a public committee formed to choose the party's list for the 2009 elections. On 8 December 2008 Rabbi Professor Daniel Hershkovitz, a mathematician from the Technion, was chosen to head the new party.
When Jewish Home announced its candidate list for the upcoming elections, five of the top six slots went to ex-NRP members. MK Uri Ariel of Tkuma was the sole exception: he received the third slot. Polls then indicated Jewish Home would get five to seven seats, thus making the first six spaces highly contested. The ex-National Union members again complained. Ex-Moledet MK Benny Elon stated that he would not seek reelection and was replaced on the candidate list by American immigrant Uri Bank. The remaining Moledet members broke away and allied with Hatikva in a revived Union (Bank also later switched to the Union.)
On 25 December Tkuma MK Ariel left Jewish Home and joined the Union. This left Jewish Home as little more than a renamed NRP: The Jewish Home, the new National Religious Party.
In the 2009 election, Jewish Home won three seats.
In November 2012 the Jewish Home held separate primaries for leadership of the party. My Israel leader Naftali Bennett won over incumbent MK Zevulun Orlev, winning more than two thirds of the vote and Orlev announced he was resigning from politics. A week later, primaries for the remaining members of the list were held, and Nissan Slomiansky, Ayelet Shaked, and Uri Orbakh reached the top spots. With the National Union breaking up, Uri Ariel officially reunited Tkuma with the Jewish Home to run on a joint list in the 2013 Israeli elections. A few Moledet candidates were included. In the elections that were held on 22 January 2013 the Jewish Home won 12 seats.
Read more about this topic: The Jewish Home
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