Who they are
Michael Malkieli is a Shas member of the Knesset and a yeshiva teacher who served as religious services minister until Shas left the government over the conscription law. He was born in Jerusalem in 1982 to Shmuel and Mira and studied at the Hebron Yeshiva in Givat Mordechai. He took a first degree in education and Jewish thought and a master’s in policy and public administration at the Hebrew University.
He taught for four years at the Kiryat Noar youth village and for seven at the Tiferet Zvi yeshiva, founded Netivot Noam to bring yeshiva-style study into religious high schools, and wrote the halachic works Torat HaMila, Torat HaShulchan and Torat HaParasha. His public career began in 2012 at the head of the Neve Yaakov community administration, and a year later he won a seat on the Jerusalem city council, where he held the Haredi sport portfolio. He was chief of staff to the religious services minister David Azoulay before taking a Knesset seat himself in November 2016, when Aryeh Deri stepped down.
In the Knesset he has been a deputy speaker and chair of the Shas faction. As religious services minister he signed an order suspending the kashrut reform of his predecessor Matan Kahana, and he doubled as acting interior minister for three months in 2023 after Deri was removed from that post.
Positions and record
Rabbinate: Preserve the Orthodox monopoly on marriage and kashrut.
Community: Mikvehs, synagogues, burial services.
Where they stand
Holds the party line on every issue.
Judea & Samariaparty lineIt follows the Knesset and the government on Judea and Samaria rather than setting a line of its own, and opposes any division of Jerusalem.
Two states / withdrawalSovereignty / annexation
Gaza & Securityparty lineIt backed the hostage agreement, holding that no commandment matters more than saving the lives of hostages.
Deal & disengagementFull military control
Haredi Enlistmentparty lineTorah study is service. A law settling the status of yeshiva students is its one condition for joining a government, and it left the government in 2025 when none came.
Universal draftPreserve exemptions
Judiciaryparty lineIt does not recognise the Supreme Court's authority over the party, and would bar the court from reviewing the appointment of ministers.
Court can strike lawsKnesset can override
Economyparty lineAgainst globalisation and the privatisation of welfare: the minimum wage raised by a quarter, manpower agencies abolished, and old-age pensions at a third of the average wage.
Social spendingFree market
Educationparty lineIt fights to keep its own network independent, refusing outside control of what it teaches and what it is paid, and Deri calls the struggle a holy war.
State runs the schoolsParents and communities
Religion & Stateparty lineThe religious status quo and a stronger rabbinate, with kashrut returned to the Chief Rabbinate, while the state also supplies other faiths their religious needs.
Civil / pluralistReligious authority
Nation & Citizenshipparty lineA Jewish state and the ingathering of the exiles, and it asked in coalition talks for the grandchild clause of the Law of Return to be abolished.
Equal citizenshipJewish national state
