Brit HaKanaim

Brit HaKanaim (Hebrew: בְּרִית הַקַנַאִים, lit. Covenant of the Zealots) was a Jewish organisation which operated in Israel between 1950 and 1953, in opposition to the widespread trend of secularisation in the country. The group was made up of students of the Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem. The organization had approximately more than thirty-five members at its peak. Among its members were Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, who later served as the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, and Shlomo Lorincz, who later served as chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee as a member of Agudat Yisrael. The ultimate goal of the movement was to apply Jewish law in the State of Israel and establish a Halakhic state. The arrest of members of the organization brought to the public agenda issues about the relation between religious groups and public institutions in the State of Israel, but also issues of proper treatment of detainees, and the use of administrative detention rules to enforce the law on political and religious movements.