Shas is facing its biggest crisis since the Sephardi-Charedi party first ran for Knesset 30 years ago.

Scarcely a year after its founder and spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadya Yosef, passed away, an irrevocable rift at the top of the party has meant that in the next elections there will be two parties claiming the mantle of the late rabbi.

Shas will be led by party chairman Arye Deri, while Eli Yishai, his former number two and the man who led the party for 13 years - while Mr Deri was in prison for bribe-taking and then in the political wilderness - this week founded a new party.

Mr Yishai is planning to call his party Maran, Rabbi Ovadya's honorific title, and is trying to rebrand himself as a unifying leader by including representatives of other communities on his list, such as Habayit Hayehudi MK Yoni Chetboun.

Both Mr Yishai and Mr Chetboun take far-right positions and are expected to appeal not only to traditional Shas voters, but also those who feel that the main right-wing parties, Likud and Habayit Hayehudi, are not nationalist or religious enough.

Mr Deri, fearful of his old rival's popularity among Shas's working-class voters, held a press conference with Adina Bar Shalom, Rabbi Yosef's elder daughter, a social activist and founder of Charedi women's colleges. By allying himself with Rabbanit Bar Shalom, Mr Deri hoped both to strengthen his claim to be the true successor of Rabbi Yosef and present himself as a modernising figure.