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Shas chairman Aryeh Deri attends a vote in the Knesset in Jerusalem on July 16, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri is stepping down from the Knesset after voters handed the party a thrashing in the October 27 election, shrinking it from 11 seats to six.

The decision is a humbling one for Deri, the longtime leader of the Sephardic Haredi party whose career was marred by a corruption conviction a quarter-century ago. Although he will remain party chairman, he will no longer represent the faction in Knesset and remains unable to serve as a government minister due to his past criminal offenses.

The move comes days after Deri sought to resign as party chairman following Shas’s dismal showing in the election, its worst result in three decades.…