, chairman of Shas Shas was founded in 1984, prior to the
elections to the eleventh Knesset in the same year, in protest against the small representation of Sephardim in the largely
Ashkenazi Agudat Yisrael, Yosef founded the party in 1984 on the platform of a return to religion and as a counter to an establishment dominated by Ashkenazi Jews of European extraction. Not all Shas voters are
ultra-Orthodox Jews. Many of its voters are
Modern Orthodox and
traditional Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews, due to its alignment with the promotion of an "authentic Middle Eastern"
Israeli culture, which fits with traditional
Zionist beliefs of a revival of authentic, non-Europeanized
Jewish culture. However, it still represents the Sephardi and Mizrahi Haredi Jewish sectors in the
Knesset. Shas has at times been able to exert disproportionate influence by gaining control of the balance of power in the Knesset within the context of the traditionally narrow margin between Israel's large parties. Like its
Labor Zionist counterparts (i. e.,
Labor and
Meretz) that gain votes from the
kibbutz movement, Shas gains votes and supports from
moshavim that are inhabited by Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews, either Orthodox or non-Orthodox. Also, since it became a member of the
World Zionist Organization, it gains votes from Orthodox settlers in the West Bank. In the elections to the eleventh Knesset in 1984, Shas won four seats. and joined
Ehud Olmert's
coalition government, alongside
Kadima,
Labor,
Gil and, between October 2006 and January 2008,
Yisrael Beiteinu. In the government, Shas party leader Yishai was Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor and
Deputy Prime Minister, while
Ariel Atias was Minister of Communications and
Meshulam Nahari and
Yitzhak Cohen were
Ministers without Portfolio. Following the
2009 elections, in which Shas won eleven seats, it joined
Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government and held four cabinet posts.
Eli Yishai, who led the party at that time, was one of four Deputy Prime Ministers and
Minister of Internal Affairs. On 4 December 2011, Shas launched its United States affiliate, American Friends of Shas, based in Brooklyn, New York. but chose to form part of the Labor opposition to Netanyahu's new government.
Yair Lapid of the
Yesh Atid party and
Naftali Bennett of
The Jewish Home, who had won more seats and joined the coalition, both favored conscription of the previously exempt Haredi men into Israel's national service and a reduction in state financial support for Haredi families, policies Shas opposes. In December 2014, Eli Yishai left the Shas party, which he had led for more than a decade. He said he would lead a new religious party in the election scheduled for March 2015. His departure from Shas and Aryeh Deri did not come as a surprise. The party that he formed,
Yachad, failed to pass the election threshold. In the
ensuing election, Shas was accused of tampering with Yachad ballots. They were also accused of creating a straw party with the symbols of
Otzma Yehudit, which was running on a joint list with Yachad during the election. Shas won 7 seats in the election. In 2017, opinion polling showed that Shas was falling under the election threshold of 3.25%. In response, Shas leaders said that there was a coup attempt in the party. In the same year, a tape was leaked of the party's former spiritual leader, criticizing Jerusalem Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. The party won 8 seats in the
April 2019 election, and 9 seats in
September 2019. Both elections were inconclusive, and resulted in a third election in
2020, in which Shas won 9 seats. After the election, a senior Likud minister anonymously told
Al-Monitor that Deri was mediating political coalition talks between Netanyahu and
Blue and White leader
Benny Gantz. It was also reported that Deri "might even be open to a new alliance with Blue and White" after the anti-clerical Yesh Atid split from the alliance. Negotiations subsequently resulted in the formation of a
rotation government between Netanyahu and Gantz, which included Shas. The government collapsed in December 2020 due to failed budget negotiations, resulting in another snap election in
2021. Shas won 9 seats in the 2021 election, but remained out of government for the first time since 2013. Later that year, Deri resigned from the Knesset as part of a plea bargain for alleged tax evasion. The new government collapsed after a year, and elections were held in
2022, Shas won 11 seats. Shas returned to government, with Deri becoming Interior Minister,
Health Mnister and
Vice Prime Minister. In early 2023, Deri was required to relinquish his ministerial posts due to the plea bargain after a ruling by the
Supreme Court. He remained a member of the Knesset and the leader of Shas. Shas' ministers resigned from government in July 2025 over the government's failure to pass a law excluding ultraorthodox youth from the draft, but remain part of the coalition. ==Ideology==