Yisrael BaAliyah
The party was formed on 23 February 1999 during the 14th Knesset when MKs Michael Nudelman and Yuri Stern, both immigrants from Russia, broke away from Natan Sharansky's Yisrael BaAliyah. Splits had appeared when the party decided to vote against an amendment to the Religious Services Law that blocked Reform and Conservative Jews from Religious Councils, but Nudelman and Stern did not turn up to vote.