Ya’akov Asher (born July 2, 1965) is an Israeli Haredi politician, former mayor of Bnei Brak, and member of the Knesset for Degel HaTorah. In September 2026, he was chosen to lead United Torah Judaism (UTJ), the electoral alliance of the non-Hasidic Degel HaTorah and the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael, ahead of the election for the 26th Knesset.
Asher was born and raised in Ramat Gan to Aharon and Tova Asher. He studied at the Mishkan Yaakov Yeshiva in Haifa and the Grodno Yeshiva in Ashdod, and later at the Beit Yehuda kollel in Bnei Brak. He completed abbreviated military service through the Israel Defense Forces’ Shlav Bet program, a framework for older religious recruits that included short basic training and reserve duty. Asher later settled in Bnei Brak. He is married to Miriam and has seven children.
Asher began working for the Bnei Brak municipality around 1990 as an aide to Deputy Mayor Eliyahu Suissa. He subsequently managed the office of Mayor Yerachmiel Boyer, assisted the municipality’s director-general, and headed its education department. In 2000, he ran in Elad’s first municipal election at the head of a UTJ-affiliated list. He narrowly lost the mayoral race to Shas candidate Tzuriel Krispel but joined the municipal council and served as deputy council head.
Returning to Bnei Brak politics, Asher was elected to the city council in 2003 and became deputy mayor, responsible for the engineering department. In 2008, Degel HaTorah selected him as its mayoral candidate under a rotation arrangement with Agudat Yisrael. As the only candidate, he was elected unopposed and served as mayor until 2013. His other municipal roles included serving as vice chairman of the Federation of Local Authorities in Israel and serving on regional planning bodies.
Asher entered national politics in the January 2013 election. Placed seventh on the UTJ list, he won a seat when the alliance secured seven mandates. He again held the seventh position in 2015 but was left outside the Knesset when UTJ won six seats. That March, he was appointed secretary-general of Degel HaTorah. He returned to parliament on May 24, 2016, after Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush resigned his seat under the “Norwegian Law,” and Asher thereafter served continuously through the 25th Knesset.
In May 2020, Asher became chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, which handled legislation and emergency regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic. He later served as a deputy speaker of the Knesset. Following the 2022 election, he chaired the Interior and Environmental Protection Committee, drawing on his local-government experience in debates involving municipal administration, planning, housing, immigration, and environmental policy. He resigned that chairmanship in July 2025 when UTJ withdrew from coalition positions over the unresolved status of military exemptions for yeshiva students. He subsequently represented UTJ on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and participated in negotiations over conscription legislation.
In September 2026, Degel HaTorah’s rabbinical leadership removed longtime lawmakers Moshe Gafni and Uri Maklev from its Knesset slate and selected Asher to head the party’s parliamentary list. Because it was Degel HaTorah’s turn to lead the joint ticket under the alliance’s rotation arrangement, Asher also became chairman of UTJ. The combined list submitted to the Central Elections Committee on September 8 placed him first. Gafni remained chairman of Degel HaTorah’s national movement.
Sources: “Knesset Member Yaakov Asher,” Israeli Knesset. [Hebrew]
Shari Roth, “And the Third-Place Selection Is... Who Are You, Yaakov Asher?” Behadrei Haredim, (December 3, 2012). [Hebrew]
Jeremy Sharon, “Ending Bitter Saga, Porush Set to Resign as MK to Allow Former MK Yaakov Asher to Regain Seat,” Jerusalem Post, (May 22, 2016).
Shilo Freid, “‘Whoever Wants Convenient Partners Needs Us’: This Is the New Leader of United Torah Judaism,” Ynet, (September 6, 2026). [Hebrew]
Kobi Israel, “After the Split and Turmoil: United Torah Judaism Submits Its Knesset Slate,” Kikar HaShabbat, (September 8, 2026). [Hebrew]
Yossistinknesset, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.